


White Rabbit

by Vesperchan



Category: Naruto
Genre: BAMF Sakura, F/M, Fair Folk, Fairies, Fairtytales, Fay - Freeform, Itachi as a fay, Lore - Freeform, Love Triangles, Other, PTSD, Sai is a turd and I love him, Sai is also my sweet son, Sakura Centric, Sakura is the hero of her own story, Shisui is a brat and I love him, The Uchiha are the night court, if you go chasing rabbits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:49:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 117,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8441044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vesperchan/pseuds/Vesperchan
Summary: If you go chasing rabbits you are sure to fall. Sakura was taken by the fair folk as a girl and forced to run in their bloody races. Years later, she's all but convinced herself she's normal and healed. A job with Sarutobi turns out to be more than it seems and it looks like the fay world isn't done with her just yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**White Rabbit**

**And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall**  
**Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call**  
And call Alice, when she was just small

**Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit Lyrics**

* * *

She had been tying up her hair when she heard the knock at her door. It would be hard to mistake his thundering bangs as belonging to anyone else, so Sakura slid in the last bobby pin and went to let him in.

Kakuzu didn't smile as she greeted him and invited him into the studio apartment that was little more than the bare bones of what someone needed to survive with. Most of her things had already been packed up, and the last few things that weren't were half in boxes or duffles next to the door.

Kakuzu glared at her luggage. Kakuzu glared a pretty much everything he looked at, but he was a tad more fierce with his gaze when he saw her things packed up.

"You're really going to take that job." It wasn't a question, but it came out sounding like an accusation.

"Hello to you too. Are you going to be here for tea or should I ask you to leave with your negative ass?" Sakura sweetly chirped, knowing her friend too well to be intimidated by him.

Kakuzu dropped his head and closed the door behind him. His frame nearly filled it. "Tea please."

Sakura turned back to the kitchen and pulled her kettle out of the box by the stove. She filled it with water and set it out to boil. When she turned back she saw he was sitting at the counter on one of the two stools left. He was still scowling, but that was such a normal thing for him, and he always looked worse when he wasn't please on account of the scars around his face.

Kakuzu might have been what others called handsome once upon a time, but accidents left his face less than ideal. It had been one of the reasons he had so few friends. The other reason was his sour personality. Luckily, neither were reasons Sakura saw as good enough to hinder their partnership during their year long internship. Kakuzu didn't have many friends, but the few he did have he kept close.

"You're taking that job offer." Once more, it wasn't a question.

"Ma, you didn't even wait till the tea was finished before asking such personal questions."

"Sakura-"

"I know." She huffed, propping her head up with her hand as she leaned on the counter. "Yeah, I had my phone interview on Tuesday and he wants me to start before the week is up. I just got the call yesterday."

"I thought you would work at Pioneer. You did so well there during our internship."

"I nearly had a mental breakdown and suffered weakly panic attacks," Sakura laughed. "You call that doing well?"

He grunted and she knew he was remembering the same sorry state he found her in more than once. He had talked her down on more than one occasions. "You managed well through it all, and your numbers were the best out of everyone there, next to mine. With experience the panic attacks should fade."

Sakura stood and pushed her stool back so that is scraped the floor on a loud whine. "I'm not going to live like that. If that's what it takes to be successful I don't want it. I don't need to be rich in order to survive."

Kakuzu watched her as she rounded the counter and reached for the kettle just as it was about to scream a high pitched wail. There were already two cups out that she poured her tea into. One she kept at her place, the other she set in front of the taller man.

"Here, drink."

"Your tea always tastes like hot water."

"That's what it is," Sakura sighed, stirring in a second spoonful of honey. When she passed it to him he turned up his nose and picked up his own cup to sip from. Sakura finished her own tea and then took a third spoonful from the honey jar to such on, just because she could.

"You're going to rot your teeth that way."

"I'll never get anything bad from honey," Sakura laughed with a knowing glint in her smile. "Don't you know it's good for you?"

"You'll grow bored at such a slow, unchallenging job. When you're bored, call me. I'll find a place for you." His words are hard and she knows he means each and every one of them.

"You don't need to do that."

"You think I would for just anyone?" He almost rolls his eyes at her. "Hardly. I think you're worth it, that's all. I know you'll do a competent job. I've never seen you make a mistake with numbers."

Sakura sucked the rest of the honey from her spoon. "Yeah," she mumbled around the metal. "I guess I'm sort of amazing."

"Hardly modest is more like it," he mumbled under his breath.

"I'm not about to deny something that's already an established fact. That's why I had so many job offers."

"Yet you chose the most obnoxious one of all. You know how few people are financial aids to only one client at a time? Even if he is providing you with room and bored, you're going to be bored out of your mind in two weeks time."

"The estate's finances are in a mess and have been back up for years. I hardly think the problems will be fixed with two weeks of work." She peeked over at Kakuzu and grinned. "Don't give me that look. I've worked hard to earn this rest and I'm going to take it. Don't make me feel bad for it. I'm not like you. The city would kill me."

"You chose a crap career for it then."

"I like numbers, okay." She waves the spoon in his face and he leans away, grimacing. "And it was so much cheaper than nursing school. I could have never afforded to become a doctor."

"You could do anything you want after a year working at Pioneer. You'd make enough money to buy your own nice house, to go back to school, to train to be a doctor. You've never been so rich, you don't know what it's like, or how it feels to loose it all. There's freedom and then there's slavery."

It was as close as he ever came to talking about his past, and Sakura never asked for more than that. He never offered so she never pried. It was a favor he returned by never asking or caring about her own history. She appreciated that.

"I guess I'll miss you." Sakura looked down at her empty spoon and wished it was full of honey again. "I'll come back to visit. Will you see me?"

He huffed a low breath and glared at her sideways. "What do you think?" When she chuckled he turned his face away. "When do you leave?"

"Tomorrow, before noon. It will take several hours by car." After she finished speaking Kakuzu stood and pushed in his stool before removing the outer layer of his gray thread suit jacket. Sakura blinked in surprise. "What are you doing now?"

"You'll need help packing and loading the rest of this. I have nothing better to do." He started to roll up his sleeves and paused only when he caught the way she was grinning up at him from her stool. A flush of pink spread across his face. "What?"

"Nothing, I'll just miss you when I'm gone."

They had called it a castle, but it was really nothing more than a grand old house with too many rooms and nearly too many windows. All of this was set on a modest lot of a fog choked moor in the New England Lands far from the city. In the daytime it was charming, but locals were quick to warn visitors to stay indoors during the twilight hours when the fog came in thick enough to make a blind man lose his way.

In spite of its degradation, the old house was an eerily beautiful example of the wealth of European Americans in the early 1800's. It had been passed down through the various generations, serving a variety of different functions in each lifetime, some interesting, others bizarre.

Sakura doubted her stay would leave any significant impact on the home's history.

Sakura checked her phone's GPS and saw she was in the right location before getting out of her car to open the black gate and make it possible to drive onto the grounds. She felt odd about letting herself in, but the instructions had been fairly clear about that step.

From a distance, on the other side of the black iron gate the estate seemed almost enchanting, crossing the threshold and then closing the barrier behind her did nothing to diminish her perspective on the manor. It almost made her think that her job would be worth turning down the position alongside Kakuzu in the city, managing the financials of firms that sneezed millions like it was nothing.

Sakura pulled her car up the driveway and turned of the circular path to park underneath the arch on the side of the house. Before she could cut her engine the side entrance door had opened and a man stepped out, smiling and heading for her direction.

'Not the owner,' Sakura mentally noted. He was too young and too pretty looking to be the owner of the manor.

Sakura grabbed her phone and keys before throwing them into her purse and shouldering it just in time for the man to open her car door and usher her out.

"Ms. Haruno?" he asked with polished words.

Sakura stepped out of her car and let him shut the door before nodding. "That would be me. Would I be wrong to assume you are Mr. Sarutobi?"

He smiled softly in a polite way that didn't reach his eyes. There was something cold about him that wasn't quite off putting, yet at the same time she couldn't call it welcoming. It might have been just her, reading too deep into it, but Sakura resolved to keep up her best business face around this man so long as he did the same. She could tell he was treating her the same way employees treated customers in a convenience store, only in nicer clothes.

"You would, but you flatter me nevertheless. I am the head manservant of the manor, Uchiha Itachi. I oversee the managing of the estate and was the one who contacted your school's employment office. You came highly recommended."

His flattery felt flat. She doubted he meant any of it but resolved not to care. "Thank you. I believe your email stated that Mr. Sarutobi wanted to speak with me himself before I began my work here."

There was a half second too much of a pause before itachi nodded and answered her. "Yes. I'm to escort you there. When you are done meeting I will see to any other accommodations that need be put in place."

Sakura returned his smile with one of her own that she hoped was just as polite and just as shallow before following him inside.

The entered through a side entrance that Itachi assured her was far less grand than the north or main entrance, but Sakura was impressed all the same. It was kept neat and clean, a sign that someone was an excellent cleaner on the estate.

Itachi led her up a single flight of curved stairs to the second floor where a hallway stretched down to a room with it's heavy oak doors left open for Sakura to see into. Itachi stopped at the threshold and rolled his knuckles over the wood of the door, knocking fancifully. A second later he stepped in and beckoned for Sakura to follow.

The room was more of a study than a library, with each wall set up with build in bookcases and a circle of Chesterfield sofas with their backs all around a supporting beam in the middle of the room. There were free standing globes and plants scattered about, making the enormous room seem a little less massive. It wasn't crowded, but it was certainly filled.

Far in the back, sitting on the bench under the window, an old man sat smoking a pipe while reading a book that was decidedly newer than most of the others in his library. He looked up when he heard them approach but didn't remove his pipe or stand to greet them. His face was tan and leathery through all his wrinkles, making his smile stand out all the more when he looked up at them.

"Itachi, you're surly in trouble now." Sarutobi removed the pipe from his mouth to hold while he spoke, his old eyes twinkling with mirth. "You didn't tell me our guest was such a handsome young woman."

"To be fair, sir, he didn't tell me I was handsome either." Sakura grinned, feeling easy in her skin once more.

Itachi had put her on edge, but Sarutobi felt like sunshine and old cotton. It was a relief to know he wasn't a grouchy old man, or worse, a twisted old leech like Kakuzu had warned her about. No, something in her gut told her Sarutobi would be a man she could trust in time. For now, he was a perfectly safe employer.

Sarutobi's eyes went wide at her remark, shining brighter until he threw his head back and laughed, exhausting gray, tobacco clouds from his mouth like a dragon as he cackled. Itachi seemed to deflate from over Sakura's shoulder, provoking Sakura to grin.

"Itachi, you'll have your hands full this time. She's not intimidated like the rest of your staff, eh?"

"Please, sir," Itachi sighed, lowering his head. "That is quite enough teasing. I must see to the young lady's things and prepare her quarters."

Sarutobi waved Itachi off with a chuckle leaving the pair of them alone in the cluttered study of oddities and nick- knacks. He sat up and stood, leaving his book behind to step over to a oak desk not far from the windows. He gestured to the opposite side were a pair of olive green Bergere armchairs were set for guests to sit comfortably in while business was discussed.

"You have a lovely home," she admitted easily, taking in even more of the opulence around her.

"I'm glad you like it, I'd imagine you'll be seeing even more of it during your stay here. I hope to impress."

"Speaking of my stay here, I'd like to ask how soon I can get started by seeing your books. I understand you're quite backed up."

"We've filed an extension every year for two years and poor Itachi has done his best to scrape together what heads and tails he can make of it, but he's a man suited to managing the other affairs of my house. I'm afraid it's become too much for him and we are in need of your professional help."

Sakura shifted and set her purse down at her feet to allow her arms even more room on the chair's armrests. "As I understand it I will be needing to train Itachi after I am able to clean up the books on this property. How long do you see me staying here for? I'm not going to slack off, but I'd like to try my best to meet your expectations once I know them."

Sarutobi's eyes grow pensive as he looks down at the notebook left open on his desk. The day's date was marked at the top but the entry was blank. "I'm willing to provide you with the finances for an entire year and then two additional months to train Itachi. I don't know how long this mess will last, but if it lasts longer…"

"That's fine, sir." Sakura held up a hand to stop him. "I should be able to clear things up in far less time."

"I had heard you were quite extraordinary, but I would value accuracy over speed when it comes to these matters."

Sakura couldn't help but grin. "Sir, I don't make mistakes when it comes to numbers. You won't have to worry about something like that with me."

"Quite confident, are you?"

"When I have reason to be," Sakura admitted with a shrug and playful blush. "I see no point in proclaiming false modesty to an employer."

Sarutobi took his pipe and turned it over before tapping the loose ash out into a silver tray shaped like a sea shell. "I think I'll like having you here at the manor, my dear. Carnation Manor has been dreadfully droll theses last few years. It will do to have some energy again. Let me tell you a little about this place. You'll be staying here so why not learn the gossip right away."

Sarutobi began with a brief history of the house, listing all details Sakura had found on her own when she researched the validity of the estate. He then told her that maybe six years ago they started to downsize and close off sections of the house to save on heating costs and other such things. He showed her a small map of the home's layout and pointed to the West Wing where the house had been completely shut off, warning her to stay away from that part of the house citing repair damage in addition to his heating concerns.

"And I'm sure you've heard from the locals about the fog…" he began.

"So thick it could confuse a blind man, or something like that. I'm not one for exploring the outdoors these days so I don't think you have to worry."

Sakura glanced out the nearest window and frowned at how clear and bright everything seemed. The warned about how the fog would roll in without warning, but she had a hard time believing it such a green could ever be anything other than clear. Not far from the estate's lands there was a modest copse of trees, almost a woods.

"Come, walk with me, I'll show you some of my favorite spots before Itachi gives you boring version of a tour. Please feel free to roam as you wish and treat this place as your home. In addition to your own suite you'll have a private study to call your own."

Sakura took the old man's arm when he offered it and noted he was not much taller than her in his old, stooping age. At one point in his life he had been taller than her, but not by much, and not now.

He took her down the hallway with smoking rooms, game rooms, a trophy room from the last century, a weapons room and even the entrance to a menagerie that was home to only a handful of exotic birds these days. "It's used mostly as a garden these days. Itachi spends much of his time attending to the plants here. Out Landscaper is contracted out biweekly. Aside from Itachi and myself there are only four other residents you may run into while living here, two of them are part time help, one is my son, and the other my grandson."

Sakura filed that information away neatly to be used later. "Itachi sounds like a busy man. I can understand why he wouldn't have time for the finances."

"You don't think he tried? It drove him nearly insane on top of his already abysmal health." Sarutobi laughed at something he added in his mind, smiling secretly with only a hit of sparkle in his eye. Sakura felt an under layer of regret there and suspected her new employer had a soft spot for the pretty Uchiha.

"Speaking of the devil." Sakura looked up when she heard his footfalls. The polite step of his polished shoes on wood made her glance down the hallway ahead of her before she ever saw him coming.

Itachi carried one of her traveling suitcases under his arm leaving the other free. He stopped outside a room with the door partly left open and waited for the pair of them to join him. He inclined his head to Sarutobi and then turned to Sakura. "Your things have mostly been set up in your own suite. After you are settled I will take you to the secretary's office where our finances are kept."

"Only so that she knows her way around. That should be enough excitement for one day," Sarutobi cut in. "Afterwards you may show her the way to the east's dining room where we will have an early dinner. I expect the both of you to be there."

Itachi's expression never shifted or changed during a single moment in his reply back to Sarutobi. "Asuma and your grandson are out, I had not instructed the cook to stay for tonight. I will prepare something for us in his absence."

"Excellent."

Sakura looked between the two and felt a sliver of embarrassment cut through. "Nothing extravagant, I hope. If Itachi is as busy as you say he is that surely he needs a rest more than I do."

"No need," Itachi stiffly interjects, looking almost offended at the idea of needing a rest. "I shall have dinner prepared promptly at half past five."

Sakura kept her mouth shut when she saw on her wrist watch that it was already a quarter past four. If he wanted to be a super butler she wasn't going to stop him.

Itachi brushed past them and pushed aside the half opened door to step into her suit and deposit her luggage off to the side against the wall. He stood stiffly and folded his thin, gloved hands behind his back while he waited for her to follow him in. Sarutobi dropped her arm to let her go on ahead of himself while he made an excuse about seeing to the matters of his missing son and grandson.

Sakura stepped into the room and decided she would have to marvel later when Itachi wasn't present to see her drool over such finery. It was fit for a princess and something young inside of Sakura ached.

"I think it will do," Sakura murmured softly, noting the white cloth still draped over the vanity mirror and the free standing mirror in the corner of the room where a screen had been set up for changing ladies.

Itachi noted her stare and frowned. "They are made with antique glass that warps in light. You may remove the cloth when you have need of the mirrors, otherwise I will assume the room is adequate for your needs.

Sakura nodded, spying the bathroom off the way. "Very," she only murmured, walking out with stars stuck in her eyes from all the pretty things she never had growing up.

Itachi led her down the hallway to the previous wing she had just been to with Sarutobi. A door she hadn't entered before now stood out as Itachi unlocked it for her and handed her the key. It was old and thick, feeling of iron. Inside the floor was thick wood, leading up to half a handful of stairs where an elevated level sported a study fit for a man to manage an estate as grand as Carnation Manor. Sakura's desk was made of red oak and smelled rich of timber.

There was no laptop or personal computer to use and she remembered that the books were all physically recorded and no electronic file of them remained. In the middle of the desk sat a thick landscape sized ledger with cream pages. Sakura reached for it and flipped it open to the last page and found the account of all the home's purchases lined up neatly in fine handwriting.

The last entered date was almost a year ago.

Sakura slid her eyes over to the side where several banker boxes had been labeled for record keeping and left untouched. It was what she would expect for such an establishment.

"It might be a while before I can enter anything. This will take a while to sort and put in order." Sakura pulled off the lid to another banker box and sighed at the lack of organization. Bank statements were mixed in with invoices and receipts alike. "I would like to get started right away, regardless of what Sarutobi told you. I won't sleep easy if I haven't put in some effort here."

"As you wish. I will inform Sarutobi of your decision." Itachi half turned towards the door but paused to look back at her before adding. "Dinner will be shortly. I'll fetch you for then."

Sakura had nothing to say in reply, but even if she did she wouldn't have had the opportunity to reply. Itachi was out the door a moment later, leaving her on her own with a mess of finances that would take months to untangle and set right.

Elsewhere in the house Itachi let himself wander the halls with no destination or aim. All roads would lead him to Sarutobi if he thought of the man. He turned into a broom closet but at the touch of his ungloved hand, pale flesh on brass, the door became the one outside Sarutobi's study.

The elder man didn't look up from his journal entry when Itachi let himself in, didn't even glance off the page when Itachi flicked a wrist at the fireplace to restock the sparsely supply wood with stock summoned out of shadow. With a sigh, Itachi replaced his glove and neatly buttoned it at the wrist as he sank down into one of the chairs opposite Sarutobi's desk.

"You tire yourself needlessly," the old man huffed, sitting up and reaching for his smoking pipe to puff before going back to his entry.

"What of your son and grandson?"

The scratching of the pen stopped but Sarutobi didn't look up from the pages of his journal. His eyes were dim and far off, seeing something in his mind. "They will not be returning to the manor until the spring. It seems the last dregs of summer were not enough to secure their residency."

"It always grows harder to keep the house quiet past September. You feared this much."

Sarutobi set down his pen and sat back in his seat. "I hadn't expected it to get this bad. After so many years the activity is unprecedented. I had hoped we had seen the worst of it last winter."

Itachi's gaze turns dark. "I fear not. Closing off the West Wing is only a temporary measure. They will spread to the South Halls next if the mirrors are not warded and their numbers grow strong enough for it."

"You said they wouldn't."

"That was before what I saw on Yuletide." Behind him the fire flared dangerously in time with Itachi's agitated speech. Itachi forced himself to slow and keep his words even and level when he next spoke. "But this is nothing that can not be dealt with. I doubt any of them can touch us on this side of the looking glass."

"I am worried for our newest guest."

Itachi waved a gloved hand dismissively. "Unbelievers are always helpful, especially those who actively choose to not believe. It is a reason why your son and grandson left. They saw too much not to believe. Our world was too close to them. The servants as well…none of them are superstitious enough to tempt the other fay."

Sarutobi looked down at his notes. "She's a kind sort of girl, even after what she's been through. I don't want to see any harm come to her because of mistakes my family made. You've set her room up with the warped mirrors for protection, but still, keep an eye on her. I won't blame her for it, but accidents can happen and I'd fear what would befall someone as lovely as her. Your kind always liked the green eyed ones."

Itachi slanted his eyes sideways. "I hadn't noticed."

Sarutobi grinned, looking up from his notes. "I doubt that old friend. You think she's fair for someone who's not fay folk, otherwise you wouldn't have been so dull with her."

The fire behind him crackles. "I fail to see how I was dull."

"Of course you did," Sarutobi absently comments, tapping out soot from his pipe into the silver ash tray. "That's why you're hopeless."

Itachi tapped his knee with his index finger before standing and pulling his heels together in stiff formality. Sarutobi recognized both nervous traits. "I should leave you to your notes. I have a dinner to prepare and shadows to watch."

"Yes, you do. Go, I will meet with you soon."

Itachi was nearly at the door when Sarutobi called out once more, causing Itachi to pause with one hand raised towards the brass handle. Sarutobi was standing, holding his book between his hands. He blew and the ink from his page rippled. Seconds later the page tore free and folded in mid air into a sleek black raven, as dark as the ink from the well. The bird circled once and then darted out the doorway.

Sarutobi nodded, approvingly. "Let that one out when you find a window. I fear I'll be needing more than what we already have on the west grounds if our fears are to be proven true."

Itachi nodded, stepping into the doorway threshold before calling back to the old master of the manor. "I'd hardly believe there was a wizard better suited to the work than you, sir."

I

Sakura jerked upwards, feeling her arms fall limp and dead from cut off circulation. Her eyes were cracking open and the evidence of her impromptu nap turned sleep weighing her down. She could feel it on her face even if she couldn't see it.

She sat up and straightened out, taking note of where she was and what she had been doing when she passed out atop the messy desk. Her papers were all still out and decorated in colorful sticky notes that helped her date and prioritize the most important parts of the estate's financial standing.

The books were a mess. Sakura knew the books were going to be a mess, she anticipated the books being a mess, she expected the books to be a mess, but none of that softened the blow of what she saw and continued to see the rest of the week. It almost made her head hurt to see such messy work, but the worst part wasn't the missing work, but the shoddy work.

Sakura almost didn't hear his approach until Itachi was right in front of her, setting down a silver tray on the only side table not cluttered with paper. Sakura jerked to attention, back away while Itachi ignored her in favor of pouring the tea.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked, feeling the corners of her eyes stretch stiffly. She had fallen asleep in the study again.

"You have been quite the distress to your employer with you habits," Itachi replied in monotone. He stirred a spoonful of sugar into her tea and let it swirl into a soft mix of green and gold.

"I'm a bit overwhelmed with starting the work in the right place. It's only for a little while longer and then I'll be able to take breaks again."

"You are not under any rush. Your haste is unnecessary." He held the fine china cup by the saucer and turned his wrist before setting it down on her desk, atop a pile of papers.

Sakura glared at the cup, feeling her mouth fill with want. "How did you know I would want tea? I never asked for it and you even prepared it with honey."

Itachi raised a single brow in question. "Should I not have?"

"No, I'll drink it."

Sakura reached out and rotated the cup to grab the handle and lift it to her lips. It was still warm to inhale and when she took a sip she found it as strong as it was hot. She could feel Itachi's stare calling her an idiot for drinking too soon. She set the cup back down and turned to look up and see he was still beside the tea set. He was watching her with a stare that carried literal weight. Sakura felt burdened by it and ducked her head.

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she asked.

"Not at this moment, but if you should find the task worth of your time, you may see fit to to join Sarutobi in the menagerie. He's not had company apart from my own since our dinner together."

"That truly must be a trial," Sakura murmured, not caring that her sass came out on it's own.

Itachi's look was smoldering and taunt. Sakura couldn't decide if he was more like a wire stretched enough to nearly snap, or a hot iron hovering over her skin. Most days he was both.

"He gives you no pressure to finish quickly, only well. See that you are resting frequently. Join him if you see fit, remain here otherwise." Itachi turned, facing away from her towards the door. "Excuse me."

Sakura rolled her eyes and stood, calling out. "Wait."

It was enough to make Itachi pause and turn back to look at her. He didn't ask or voice an opinion.

"You said he didn't have anyone else to talk to. What happened to his son and grandson? I thought they were going to be staying in the house as well, but I haven't seen either of them. They out?"

"They are retired for the season. They will not be returning for the rest of the year."

Sakura frowned, sitting back down in her seat. Her hand gravitated towards the cup on her desk table top. "That sorry to hear. I can imagine it can be lonely without family in such a large house. But, he does have people visiting him nearly every day."

Itachi nodded, conceding that point. "On occasion men on business do visit."

That was an understatement. Sakura had tried to track Sarutobi down the other day to ask about a collection of invoices she had come across only to have Itachi turn her away in the hallway. Friends had come to visit and their laughter was thicker than the walls, echoing down the corridor. The invoices were still in the suspense folder on her desk, growing larger with every hour.

She grabbed the teacup and held it back to her lips, inhaling she could smell the sweet honey infusing the jasmine tea. She took a sip, and then another. "You said he was in the menagerie?"

"The same one." With that, Itachi tipped his head and turned to make his way out of her study.

Once Sakura was alone again she took her cup and saucer away from the desk down the landing to the opposite end of the room where a chaise lounge had been set up under the window. Sakura sat down and inhaled the tea once more, letting the aching parts of her body sag in relaxation while the rest of her unwound a little.

Sakura closed her eyes and kept them closed until she couldn't see the numbers anymore. She forced herself to forget. She didn't need to see them anymore. She was going on a break. She knew how to take those.

It wasn't like she didn't take breaks. Sakura knew she had a few reckless habits when it came to work; it was one of the reasons her moods had been so unbalanced during her internship alongside Kakuzu. She got tunnel vision bad when it came to numbers. She had been like that ever since she could remember. It was the oddest of traits that neither of her parents shared or knew what to do with.

'Spill a handful of salt over your shoulder when you fear the fair ones are on your back, as they've a compulsion to count, just like you,' her grandmother used to tease. It was a silly superstition that didn't make any sense.

A bolt of pain seared the inside of her skull and Sakura felt the aftershock of her budding migraine warning. She set her near empty teacup on the table and turned her body into the couch's arm, groaning. Her eyes were overworked. Too many tiny numbers, too many small details. She was tired. Maybe Itachi was right about taking a break, though she doubted it was so much about her health and more about pleasing Sarutobi.

After a handful of minutes Sakura rolled over on the lounge and reached for her cup. Finding it mostly drained, she tipped it back and let the last heavy drops fall off the rim into her mouth. It was heavy with honey and it was enough to make the pain behind her eyes all but disappear for a moment.

It was time to track down Sarutobi.

Walking out, she slid the band of her watch around her wrist and worked to clasp it with one hand while she searched for the hallway with the menagerie. It was only one turn and long stretch from her office and hard to miss.

There was an entrance on the second and the first floor to the three story glass enclosure. The second story entrance led Sakura out onto an iron balcony leading to a twisted spiral staircase that looked like it was crafted from rough and hurried hands. Sakura took the stairs down, dipping between the heavy branches of a banana tree. She heard the far off coo of a bird and then saw a flash of brilliant blue dip between the trees. Sakura saw a number of doves up ahead in the trees and followed the path they took off over.

Sarutobi was on a bench writing in his journal with a medium sized parrot on his shoulder sporting iridescent green feathers. It had been the one Sakura noticed when she first entered the indoor gardens.

It looked up at her before Sarutobi even noticed her approach. With a great ruffling of feathers the bird took off over Sarutobi's shoulder, unsettling the older man as it flew up to the tree tops, suspicious of the new arrival. It was enough to alert the old man to her arrival.

"Sakura!" He stood up suddenly, nearly dropping his notebook only to bumble and catch it at the last moment. He seemed surprised to see her.

"I needed a break and Itachi mentioned this place. The numbers were just about ready to make my eyes bleed." Sakura let her hands slid easily into the front pockets of her jeans. "He also mentioned I might be making you nervous."

"Me, nervous?" he chuckled, folding his notebook back up and tucking it under his arm. "Hardly. I'm quite content to let the experts handle their business however they see fit. How is that work progressing?"

"It's…progressing. I'm anxious to really dig into it because for now I need to familiarize myself with what has already been entered and find a good place to start. The further back I go the less holes I find, but I'm still finding holes even after going back two years. I also have a number of files I wanted to ask you about when you are free."

Sarutobi eye her kindly and the smile on his face felt like sunshine to her. "I vaguely remembered being warned about your tendency to be a perfectionist," he teased.

"Only with numbers."

"So you say." He stretched out his free hand to gesture behind him. "Well, at least you give yourself a break now. Walk with me? This is one of my favorite parts of the whole house and one of the few I frequent daily." A loud caw overhead from the same brilliant green bird punctuated his sentence.

Sakura glanced upwards into the canopy but stepped forward to draw even with Sarutobi as the most beautiful birds hid themselves from her. "That's probably a good thing, since it looks like your pets crave the attention. How many exotic birds do you keep here?"

"Exotic birds? Only three. The rest are common and choose to come and go as they see fit. There are exits in the glass for the smaller doves to get through, and I think even the Eclectus Parrot and the Macaw could slip through if they tried, but they have no desire to leave our nice warm house for the misty cold of these moors.

Sakura whistled low. "That's pretty generous. I heard those kinds of birds were expensive pets to keep."

"I hardly know what that word means these days," Sarutobi chuckled. "You balance my books. You should have an idea of what I own."

Sakura nodded. "Touchè."

"Money is a horrible subject for such fun company. Let us talk of something more delightful. What do you like about Carnation Manor? Are your rooms still to your liking? Do you require anything?"

Sakura couldn't help but let loose a burst of laughter when she heard how concerned he was. It was such a stark opposite of how her last boss treated her and the other students during their time as interns. Sakura felt very much like a number that was never high enough to be pleasing to anyone. Her concerns had never been taken into account and she doubted the man who oversaw her internship even remembered her first name, much less her opinion on her work.

"If only you knew how pleasant it is for me to be here. This is much more my speed and you can't beat the setup." Sakura grinned, knowing her smile was crooked. "All my friends back home are jealous. I told them I'm living in a castle and all they ask for now are pictures."

His eyes seemed to dance with interest. "Have you sent them many?"

Sakura paused to pull out her phone and open the photo app. She scrolled through and showed the handful of photos she took of her room, her work area, the dining room, and some of the hallways. It was only as she was scrolling through did she realize how few photos she had.

It was only worse when Sarutobi looked up from the photos with a frown and admitted. "I'm very disappointed of your lack of creativity. For one, you didn't even take any of Itachi-the one thing that is sure to make your girlfriends jealous."

Sakura almost dropped her phone as her whole body exploded in a laugh that filled the menagerie up to it's glass ceiling and walls. She covered her face with one hand, knowing for certain it had gone red the way it always does when she laughs or screams too much.

Ino would flip out if she saw a photo of Itachi and then it would be a hell storm of messages that would never end. Sakura didn't think the other girls would take it so terribly, but even the more conservative ones were sure to tease her about it if they knew. There would be no peace for Sakura's phone if ever Itachi got into it and ended up circulated among her friends.

"What would you suggest I do, other than risk my life and take a photo of Itachi, to be popular with my friends?" Sakura teased, pretending to plead.

"You're not willing to risk it with Itachi?"

Sakura shook her head, eyes growing wide.

"Then maybe the armory or the tapestries might be more entertaining. Tell me if you're too old for stories now before I change my mind. I want to show off my collection." He reached for her arm and threaded it through his, guiding her back up the path to the exit.

She hummed in good humor. "I am old enough for fairytales again I think."

Sakura followed dutifully on his arm up to a separate hallway she had never been down. It was only when they were on the threshold of a brand new room did she realize why she had never been down the hallway.

"We're in the West Wing!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I thought this section was condemned. What are we doing here?"

Sarutobi replaced the silver key he had used to open the door back into his pants pockets. She heard his dismissive chuckles he drew her further into the new hallway. Nothing about the interior of the room seemed to signify it needed repair in any way. Everything looked in near perfect condition.

"Not this section. I keep up the pretense for this room because of it's content, but the rest of the wing really is a rotting mess. I've done my best to preserve these tapestries. They've been in this family since before the manor was planned. I take a lot of pride in these pieces, though they aren't the flashiest."

Sakura inhaled and tasted the texture of the room as it filled her lungs, age and dust were accents to the rich woody smell of the room, punctuated by lavender from the dried out wreaths over the door. The room felt like it inhabited a space separate from the rest of the manor and it made Sakura feel like she was caught in cotton. "Show me your favorites," she whispered, not trusting her voice to leave the haunting atmosphere unbroken.

There were plenty, but Sarutobi went to one of the largest tapestries and tugged on Sakura's arm until she was centered in front of the woven image. In the center of the tapestry there was a well with a broken pitcher set aside it. Off in the corner there was a house as well, looking like it was surrounded with silver water, bloated wood, and a loaf reddish brown bread cooling in the window.

Around the well were twelve different women, each sporting a different number of hours from their skulls ranging from one to twelve; each one having a different number. Between them stretched all the pieces needed to weave cloth; wool, yarn, a wheel, and a spindle. A woman and two children were woven into the tapestry off to the side, eyes closed, glittering amber cloth over the place where their mouths should be.

"What does this one mean?" she asked, feeling something deep in her ribs echo like the last thick strings under the hammer on a piano.

"The horned witches in this one…" his voice sounded a bit rougher when he spoke, as if he was falling back into an old accent, a long forgotten brogue. "In the story, the lady of the house woke in the night and answered, a thing you should never do, not even if it's your long lost mother coming back from the country. But this woman thought it might be her neighbor, so she opened the door and like that she was in the witch with one horn's thrall, a thing not easily shaken."

"What did the witches want?"

Sarutobi shrugged his shoulders and then lifted a wrinkled finger to the spinning wheel. "To spin under her roof. All of them together worked on the spinning. The woman and her sons were bound in silence while the horned women worked."

"That makes sense for how I see their mouths. They couldn't speak, could the?"

"That's common enough in stories of fairies and witches." Sarutobi pointed back to the well and spoke on. "The spirit in their well was the only thing that saved them, telling the woman what to do once she had the chance to sneak out and pretend to see the witches' home burning. That was all it took to send the ladies scurrying."

"But what happened when the witches realized their house wasn't really going up in flames? I doubt they were happy about that."

Sarutobi laughed. "Nothing they could do about it the second time. All their tricks couldn't let them back in once the lady bolted the door and dispelled their enchantments with the aid of the spirit of the well. The horned women moved on, able to complete their work. It's not so rare a story for the old country, but it's not common here."

Sakura shook her gaze free and turned back to look at Sarutobi. His eyes were wistful and far off. "It sounds like it was important to you…the story, that is."

"All these stories are precious to me in one way or another. This one here on the wall beside it is of the green man and Iron John, the one next to that is of the Lindworm, a prince cursed in ugly, beastial form until a changeling girl breaks his curse. Wedding night, she wears seven dresses, and right before he eats each of his wife, the worm prince asks them to shed their robes."

"I've heard the story before," Sakura interjected, grinning slightly.

Sarutobi looks surprised for only a moment. "Really now, tell the rest to me then. Our versions might be different."

Sakura had heard the story when she had been only a girl, but later in life the version matured and more details came out. When she recalled the story, she liked to recall the version her girlhood self remembered.

"The prince was cursed because his mother the queen didn't follow the rules after asking a fairy woman for help having children. She had two sons, the first one was born an ugly dragon worm. It as their curse to try and break before the second son could marry, but the eldest prince just kept eating all his brides when they couldn't match him on their wedding night. A girl is wise enough that she wears those seven dresses on her wedding night to the beast, and for every dress, he must shed a skin until she's bare as the dawn and he's a naked mess of magic for her to hold onto until the magic leaves him. He changes shape all night long, and she holds onto him still. That's a common enough trope. There are plenty of stories where girls hold their husbands made out of magic."

"You've heard many fairy tales then?"

"You could say that. We weren't very well off when I was just a kid, but the library was always free and stories are a cheap escape no matter where you are." Sakura let her shoulders roll. "It's been awhile since then. I've forgotten most of the stories, unlike you."

Her eyes drifted over the images until one snagged her like a hook on thread. She stopped breathing for a moment and Sarutobi noticed. "Which one has you bewitched?" he joked, glancing up at the tapestry depicting two fairy courts opposing each other. One was led by a fairy queen and king dressed in white, the other had a king and king dressed in shades of night. Each queen held a rabbit in her hands to match their dress. On the ground were rabbit skulls.

Sarutobi watched her and there was a shifting of his features, as if he were preparing to reply, but a knock at the door interrupted his intentions. Itachi stepped in a moment later, noting Sakura's presence with a scowl before turning the fullness of his attention to Sarutobi.

"Itachi?" Sarutobi was long past being ruffled by the younger man's darker expressions.

"Unexpected visitors have come for business."

Sakura was too sensitive not to notice the way Sarutobi's eyes cut over to her in a subtle study of her expression. It was only for a moment, and then the pleasant smile was back. "I'll see them in the Blue Room on the first floor. Bring me my books." Sarutobi held out his arm for Sakura, planning to let her walk out ahead of himself. He would be the last one in the room. "I must apologize. I had not expected to be called away. Your short lived break was cut short on account of me and we never got to those documents of yours."

"I'm sure they'll be there when you're free, but I should get back to my work." Sakura left ahead of Sarutobi

Behind her she could hear the two men scurrying off down the opposite hall as soon as it split. Something about the way they hurried set her on edge. Sarutobi had guests often enough, and men and women came on 'business' calls multiple times a day, but Itachi sounded like today's visitors were more than just unexpected.

It took a little longer with her leisurely pace, but Sakura returned to her room first to find her phone charger and freshen up. Ino had sent her a couple text replies to the photos Sarutobi made her send of the tapestries. Sakura smiled and replied to each one and then debated texting Kakuzu before ultimately giving up and turning off her phone's screen. The idea of texting Kakuzu with anything other than meaningful questions on tax returns made her feel silly. He was her friend, but not in the same way Ino and the other were.

The hallway grew colder, the way a room chills with a window left open. Sakura looked up and noticed the door to her room had been left open even though she knew she never left without closing the door behind her. That was a rule of hers whenever she had important documents left out.

Sakura pushed the door open, stretching her hand away from her and keeping her distance. She didn't cross the threshold, but waited for the door to swing open on it's own. "Itachi?" she called out.

There was someone at her desk, but it wasn't Itachi. The room was cold, but no windows were open.

He straightened and turned and suddenly there were birds coming out of the bookshelves, peeling out from the very pages like they were made out of ink there were four, and there there were more; ten, maybe fifteen more, all stretching out of their pages.

Sakura thought the birds might multiply once more and swarm the room, but the man waved his hand with his back still to the the door and silver chains, glowing like mist in the light, bound the birds by their beaks and wings.

The man at her desk turned and at first Sakura thought he was Itachi, but his face was wrong for it, even if the features were strikingly similar. Same color of hair, differently styled, but the cheekbones were still high and sharp making him almost a doppler for the moody Uchiha. When he turned his head to peer down at her she felt more than just chilled.

"You're not the boy."

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, knowing with all the fibers of her body and bones that the situation was more than just precarious. Her nerves were vibrating with the warnings for danger.

Run, run, run, run…

The man turned as if hearing something from far off. "And the old goat's reneging on our accord again. He promised a half hour." His eyes cut back to her, slightly unfocused. "You might do, though."

'Shit nope!'

She reacted like a reflex, jumping backwards and pulling the door closed behind her as she turned and ran without limits screaming only once before all the air in her lungs went into pushing her body forward.

Somewhere in the mess of her mind she remembered the Blue Room on the first floor being so close to the mud room at the back of the house, not far from where the stairs ended. Her feet took her there on her own, even as the sound of her door flying open under the pressure of a million feathers and dark laughter. She was making enough noise on her own, he knew where she was. If he wanted to, following her would be easy.

The hallway opened up to a stretching staircase she flew down, taking the steps three and four at a time, skipping the last five altogether. The old wood of the house was forgiving on her ankles when she landed, but not that forgiving.

She sprinted in pain, seeing the door to the blue room open and a figure emerge. Sarutobi stood there with his sleeves rolled up and blood coating his forearms, darkest and thickest around his fingers. His eyes were wide but not like hers. Still, she heard him whisper a curse under his breath as if the sight of her triggered a foul memory.

"What the hell," Sakura gasped, crashing into the wall alongside him and spinning around before sliding down the wallpaper surface. "What-the-hell?!"

"Who did you see?" he asked, stepping around her and crouching down, keeping his hands elevated and away from her. "Did he ask about my grandson?"

"The fuck?!" Sakura hissed, eyes suddenly narrowed in anger. It slipped her mind that his grandson wasn't supposed to be in the house anymore. "Who the fuck was that? Who the fu-ugh, damn it, stitches." She whimpered, holding her sides as she looked down at her ankles and saw one was already starting to color from the abuse she put it through.

Sarutobi was faster, waving his bloody hand over her and crossing his fingers in a sign before the pain turned into heat that flared under her skin and then disappeared. When Sakura looked down again, her ankles looked as good as they felt.

"I apologize. This wasn't supposed to happen. I've not been tricked like this in years, and I never expected you to be caught up into this. He's looking for my grandson to spirit away. Wait inside the white circle in the room. I need to join Itachi and see if I can drive him away."

He nudged her with his elbow, smearing a small amount of blood on her shoulder before she stood and hobbled into the once fine room. She almost tripped when she saw the mutilated body on the table, still dripping blood.

"He's alive and he will live. The wounds are closing slowly because fairy wounds are always that much more complicated to counteract. Sakura there, no here, stand here and stay inside this circle. You'll be safe here."

"What the hell is going on?" Sakura hissed, backing up against the table, careful not to disrupt the ring of salt on the floor. She was shivering.

Sarutobi regarded her mournfully and then shook his head. "You won't remember any of this in the morning, I promise you. I had to borrow magic and in exchange I grated the fay access to my home, but I never swore to him safety."

Sakura realized something. "Where's Itachi? He's not here and that guy looked just like him."

Sarutobi backed up and held the door in one hand while he painted symbols with the other onto the wood's surface. "He left to ensure my grandson is safe. I must go to meet with him before I drive out our house guest. Stay here please, these will keep you safe."

And then he was gone, leaving Sakura to collapse silently into herself as her brain drowned in panic triggered chemicals and flashes of images she didn't want to sort through. Sarutobi borrowed magic from a fay, from a fair folk, he used magic that wasn't his. A wizard or witch, they were one in the same beyond gender roles and he was one.

Sakura turned to look back over her shoulder at the body on the table and fought back the gag when she saw the old lines where his wounds had once been. As Sarutobi had explained, the body was healing slowly right before her eyes. In a few seconds the wounds would be closed completely and he would be a messy middle aged man again. No other means could accomplish such a feat.

The man on the table stirred and Sakura jumped back, close to the ring on the floor but not close enough to disturb or breach it. His eyes fluttered open and in place of the normal components, his pupil was completely gone, and only a widening iris of blue broke up the whites of his eyes. When he moved his arms were like doll components, stiff and jarring and completely unreliable.

"Dude, you need to lie back down." Sakura winces when she saw one of his wounds spasm like a sagging bandaid, threatening to break and spill blood again. His head lolled to the side and his eyes refused to focus, but he stood and stumbled from the table to the wall, his feet shuffling through the salt ring and breaking it.

Sakura cursed and trotted over to him, hoping that the ring could be fixed if she just pieced it back together. Something was wrong with the man Sarutobi brought in and she guessed the guy would do more harm than good if she let him out. She reached for his arm but he didn't even react, just kept walking towards the door with a strength she couldn't understand. 'Not normal.'

At the touch of her he whirled around and grabbed her wrist, twisting it painfully. "Where is the boy-where is the iron?"

"Why the hell do you think I would know something like that. Get off of me," Sakura snarled, grabbing his wrist and twisting it as hard as she could. He didn't even blink.

Ignoring her, he pushed open the door and dragged her out into the hall, past the symbols on the door. Sakura kicked at his shins and she saw him flinching from the contact, but his face never shifted, like he couldn't feel the pain she was causing him.

He gripped her tiger before tugging her to his side and then hauling her by the arm into another hallway, and then into a room and out into a different hallway. Each new setting made him pause and sway on his feet a bit before turning in a new direction and heading off.

Sakura had no idea what he was doing until he stopped at a door and began to lean towards it. Sakura saw a vein of metal under the door lining the wood. Before she could try again to pull free the man punched his hand clean through the door to the other side, twisting and reaching for the knob to unlock. Sakura heart fell in her chest when she heard the scream from inside.

Pushing the broken door aside he dragged Sakura in and then threw her to the floor before striding forward. Sakura looked up and cursed at the sight. Konohamaru, Sarutobi's grandson sat on a couch inside a metal cage made out of what Sakura assumed was iron. She remembered the stories about fay and fairies being unable to touch metals like iron. Silver on werewolves, iron on fairies, it was an acid burn waiting to happen.

"This is so effed up," Sakura murmured, watching in morbid fascination as the man reached for the bars and began to pull on them. Enchanted or drugged didn't make a difference; he was human so he could touch the bars.

From inside Konohamaru screamed again. "Do something! Get my grandfather, get Itachi. He's going to take me away if you don't!" Tears made his face a mess. "I don't want to go to the bad place!"

"What are talking about?" Sakura hissed, pushing herself up off the floor. She was sore but still able to move, nothing was broken. "There was a guy that looked like Itachi in my room asking for you."

Konohamaru whimpered. "I don't want to be taken. He said he would take me for his game."

"What game?"

"The rabbit game!" More of the metal bends backwards, but the man's hands are bleeding now and Sakura doubted he would be able to peel all the metal back on his own. The bars are wet and hard to grip with just flesh and willpower. "He wants me 'cause-cause-cause of a game."

Sakura screams when the man tearing at the cage grabs a fire poker from beside the hearth and begins to break the cage apart with it. Sparks fly. He's getting much closer to destroying the hinges of the door and opening a way up to the boy inside. The child was crying harder now, less tears and more heaves of air.

Sakura felt frisson in her spine and jogged over to the same fire place and grabbed the remaining tool, a shovel. Turned the right way it would be a heavy enough weapon. She looked up, chose her target, grounded herself and then put the fullness of her strength into her swing.

The metal door fell apart and the middle aged man collapsed atop it, bleeding from his nose, knocked out cold. Sakura stood on top of him, heaving a little as her hands trembled around the metal. She dropped it and instead reached for the sharpened fire poker. When she looked up the grandson was staring at her wide eyed, finally silent.

"You're way too much of a crybaby to make a good rabbit," Sakura snorted, reaching out for his arm and pulling him towards her. "Come on, follow me, we need to make a salt ring."

"We're not close to the kitchen."

Sakura snorted, yanking the eight year old along behind her. "That wasn't very smart of him then. It sounded like he expected invading fairies too, if that was me I'd have salt in every room of the house." Sakura frowned when she felt the hand wrapped around her palm squeeze her back. The boy's head was down but he was leaning into her as they ran. She winced at the frame of such a child. He was rightly traumatized. "Eh, you remember who I am, though, right?"

"You're the money lady." That was a fun way of putting it.

"My name's Sakura. Try saying it, I hate repeating myself."

He mumbled her name at first and then Sakura yanked him closer making him yelp and repeat her name louder the second time. "Don't be mean to me. You work for my grandfather."

"Your grand daddy is in for an earful when that half hour is up. I did not sign up for this sort of shit storm and hazard pay was never discussed in the hiring process. He should have at least warned me there might be a chance of my life being put in danger like this, but noooo, all I packed were yoga pants and skinny jeans thinking this was some chump desk job." Sakura pulled the boy close to her side and paused in the hallway to listen before crossing over. "I can't believe my luck on this. I knew it was too good to be true."

"You're not going to remember any of it anyways. You'll get your memory erased just like the maids and be gone in a month," Konohamaru snapped shaking her hand but refusing to let go of it. "This is my life."

"Yeah, and that sucks cause you had no choice in it, but someone in your family did. Relationships with fairies, deals with the fay people aren't ever a good thing. I don't care what any of the stories say," Sakura hisses, pulling him close. She stops to glare at his face. "But I do know my stories and I do know that this Itachi clone isn't here because he wasn't uninvited. Magic isn't free and someone had to pay."

Sarutobi's words make her skin crawl. "You won't remember any of this in the morning, I promise you. I had to borrow magic and in exchange I grated the fay access to my home, but I never swore to him safety."

Stupid old man.

The jogged out from the hallway into the main hall and Sakura could see the bend leading to the kitchen not too far, but it was at the other end of the open hall and they were exposed to too many angles and alcoves for her liking. Konohamaru felt it too, the openness pressing on on them from all sides.

They weren't a quarter of the way across the hall when the air twisted in a chill ahead of them and the man from before turned around to greet them, looking as if he had been standing there all along and not simply hiding between the atoms of space and time. His grin was wide and made him look so much more distinguished than Itachi, there was no confusing them now.

"Look how well you did!" he cheered, clasping his hands in front of his chest and leaning backwards on only one heel, swaying like a schoolboy. "My thrall couldn't have done such a neat job and looked that good doing it. I'm so grateful."

"Wh-where's my grandfather!" Konohamaru cried out, eyes wide with fear as he pressed closer to Sakura. She brandished her iron poker like a rapier and held it ready.

"Who are you?" she demanded, baring her teeth.

The man giggled into a closed fist and then rolled his shoulders back before dipping into a low bow. His free hand swept out across his chest in an elaborate flourish. "Uchiha Shisui, the black rabbit champion of his kind."

Sakura felt parts of her go cold at the title. Black rabbit, the thing Konohamaru feared becoming. "You're an Uchiha like Itachi?"

"My precious cousin didn't tell you he was fay? He's always been far too modest for his own good."

"You both look too much alike, but he never smiles." Sakura kept a minimum of motion in her hands, waving the poker slightly to keep it fluid. "Was he really that much weaker than you to not be here now?"

"Ah, I admired my cousin for all his talents, but he could never best me in one and that is this: I have always and will always be faster than him. No point in waiting for that slowpoke now, or the old coot. Let me have the brat and we can chat at our leisure you precious thing," he all but purred, straightening up and eyeing her like a cat eyes a mouse. Her poker meant nothing to him.

"I don't think I will."

He laughed and sauntered closer, but stopped before he could be considered close. She'd have to lunge far to reach him with the tip of her poker, and that would put her off balanced. Not good, not good, not good, where was Itachi?

"You're human, you such a fleeting thing, but you stand up like you're something more than a flower in the field. Ah, that's okay, I like flowers." He eyes her poker like some joke. "Even the ones with thorns."

"Stop. Last warning." Her words came out sounding more like a plea than anything else, and they were, they were, they were…

His grin was blinding and time seemed to slow. Sakura felt the metal leave her hands and there was a searing sound as Shisui tossed the metal rod away. His hand was burned, red and blistered across the palm, but he grinned through the pain. "Still warning me, darling?" He pressed his hand to his chest, hiding the red streak with a grimace. "If you want, you could come along with the kid, keep him company."

Itachi wasn't coming. Sarutobi was nowhere to be seen. There was no more time and there were no more options.

Sakura knelt down, knees trembling and grabbed Konohamaru around the waist and pulling him close. He was shivering again and almost tried pulling away, but Sakura forced her hands to be firm. "I'm not letting you go with him," she hissed, teeth bared. "Just hold on."

"Shisui!" Sarutobi's voice from overhead boomed, sounding brittle at parts. There were bird feathers flying everywhere and silver mist leaking over the banister, but the old man could barely move.

The grinning Uchiha looked up at the old man, saluted mockingly, and turned back to Sakura and Konohamaru with knees bent and poised to dash. Sakura didn't blink, but saw the moment he lunged from across the room and saw the first step he took. Mortals didn't have a name for that speed. It wasn't a short distance, but he crossed it in less than an instant, dodging the claw and beaks along the way. He reached out and wrapped his hand around thin air.

"No!" Sarutobi cried out, missing the part where Shisui fell through thin air. Both males blinked in question, turning and searching the room for the girl and boy.

"Where's Itachi?"

Sarutobi jumped at the voice so close behind him and whirled to see a figure unlike the one who had just disappeared with his grandson. "Sakura?" he breathed, stunned at the sight of her.

Her clothing had melted away, leaving her in a short, white dress of billowing chiffon, cut off just past the middle of her thighs were similarly colored shorts protected her modesty. Her feet were bare, but like her hands, a strip of lace wrapped around the underside like a band.

The outfit change was impressive enough, but the rest of her was truly a sight. Her eyes were bleeding red and her hair had lost all but of a hint of it's original color, going stark white up to the tips where it presented a blush of its former color. On her face a mask sat atop her skin, gold and finely framed to rest over her nose and encircle her eyes. It ended in a pair of points shaped like rabbit ears above her forehead.

Her skin seemed to glow.

"You're a-" The memory of the tapestry flashed back to the both of them and Sakura nodded.

"I was. Now, Itachi?" Her words were clipped and short with irritation, but beyond that there was something else, something unearthly in her words.

"What is the meaning of this?" Shisui hisses, flashing into a blur that materialized at the end of the hallway behind Sakura.

She turned partially to view him out of the corner of her eye. For the first time the expression on the Uchiha male's face was one of shock. Sarutobi had never seen such a sight. Shisui Uchiha was a creature that was angered and upset, but never shocked. Sakura doesn't so much as blink at his reaction, unfazed by it. Still, her legs tense, getting ready to run.

"How much longer on your stupid agreement?" Sakura hisses over her shoulder, knowing the answer can't be too much. It's been awhile since she first walked in on Shisui in her study. She didn't need to hold him off for long, just until his time ran out.

"Six-no five minutes. Itachi…I left him behind in the menagerie. I don't know where he is now." Sarutobi's voice grew stronger. "Itachi was a hunter, he's much stronger than Shisui. He'll be able to put up a decent fight if you can find him."

"Old man, don't think you can run your mouth off on things you know nothing about!" Shisui snapped across the space between them. His expression was still sour. "I wanted an answer. We had a contract so what is going on?"

"I'm not associated with this house," Sakura interjected, standing to face Shisui fully. "And had I know the situation, I would have never walked into this manor and interrupted the dealings between you. Still, I'm not going to let you take another child into your world if I can help it."

"You're human!" Shisui breathed as the revelation stunned him. "A human rabbit, what court are you from?"

"I doubt you'd know of it, as I've never heard of you." Sakura evaded easily. "But that's not important. Like I said, you're not getting the kid."

"Fine."

Sakura blinked, red eyes blown wide in shock. "What?"

Sarutobi's voice was an echo. "What?"

Shisui shrugged, his shock melting way to a more even, neutral expression. "What, it's not like we'd be in trouble if we had to wait another decade or two to start the game up again. There are other things we could do instead."

"I don't think I want to know." Sakura growled, feeling her back tingle right up to the base of her skull where a bundle of nerves fired off in warning. She was in danger.

"Sarutobi, you can keep your brat kid. I want your white rabbit instead."

Sakura snarled, taking an aggressive step forward. "I am no one's to give, you bastard, and there is no way in hell I'm going back to your god forsaken lands and your god forsaken parties in your god forsaken worlds." She held up a single palm as if ready to brandish a sword in it. "I've won my freedom."

"Eh, but you've never been to a Uchiha party! We do things differently under the mountain, you'd like it."

Sakura felt her bones splinter and petal beneath her skin in agitation. "I don't do anything under the mountain." Nothing good rested beneath stone. The mask brought back memories she shook from, memories she'd rather forget. Nothing good rested under the mountain. Nothing good lives beneath stone.

Come under the mountain, under the mountain, under the mountain, come under the mountain…

"Shisui!"

Itachi entered the hallway behind his cousin, missing the pieces of his everyday clothing. Like Sakura, his dress was fairy made and magic spun. A cloak of feathers split down the spine into two billowing pieces flapped as he stalked. The rest of him was black with night. There was a wildness in his black eyes as he narrowed them, a wildness Sakura had not seen before.

"Move an inch on the family and I'll pull your liver from your gut." Itachi held his body prone, ready to back up such threats.

Shisui cursed, turning briefly to glance back at his cousin before shrugging. "Like you're here to do anything in my last minutes." He turned his attention back to Sakura and Sarutobi as silver mist began to seep out of the air around his ankles. His time was drawing short. "I'll say this, I am not the only Uchiha to strike deals with men, and you are not the only house to call on my aid. I might be the only one interested in a good, distracting game, but I'm not the only one making deals."

The mist around his ankles grew thicker but Sakura stayed tense. It would be easy for him to use the distraction to nab the boy behind her legs. He was fast enough for that. She had to be faster.

"What's your name?" Shisui asked. "I'll not touch the boy again with the intention of spiriting him away, I swear, but give me your name, White Rabbit…"

Sarutobi stiffened behind her, knowing as well as she did that his word was as good as law. The fay couldn't go back on deals and they couldn't break their words once given. All she had to do was share something that was common knowledge and the boy would be safe.

Too easy.

Her heart lurched in her throat. "Sakura."

Shisui seemed to deflate into the mist, expression content and happy. "We'll see each other again, Sakura."

And then he was gone.

II

The magic melted off of her and in a moment she was back in jeans and converse. It was a rush as the mask melted away and suddenly Sakura was cut free. She staggered, falling against the railing, vision swimming. The recoil hit her like a freight train and she gasped soundlessly as she experienced the crush of it.

It sent spasms throughout her body and she knew what she looked like, knew what she sounded like. Lightning was racing through her mind and all the atoms that made up her physical form were unlearning their immortality with great resignation. She was mortal once more, free in a body of aging, decaying flesh, and she was dying from it.

All humans die a little bit each day, cells age and are replaced in every moment, but that wasn't true when Sakura was a White Rabbit. No, when she was full of magic she was cosmic, she was overwhelming and near divine. Loosing that was to experience death.

Vomiting on the carpet in the hallway was the least of her concerns as another shockwave rocked her.

It had been years since she last donned the mask, years since she last pulled up the magic like drawing water in a bucket from a well. It had been eons since she expanded beyond the limits of man and death. Why? Why would she ever give up such power for something so hideous? She was dying and she could still feel it!

"She's not sleeping."

"She won't. She has to ride this out, she's mortal now. Your magic won't be any good for now."

The voices were angry thunder in her ears and Sakura prayed she wasn't frothing at the mouth this time. Bile was in her throat and her gut contracted painfully. Salt crusted under her eyelids, refusing to fall with the rest of her tears.

This had happened before, when she was a girl, and again when she was almost a woman. She had been a fool both times, caught up in the wanting so vivid it made her bite her hands until she bleed. She wanted so badly to be amazing again, but with the mask came memories, and other things.

Her fits could last hours. The first one did, when she still had the undeveloped body of a girl who remembered aging in another world and becoming a woman. That time had been the worst, and she hadn't thought of the mask or the speed again until many years had passed to dull the memory.

She had been alone for the first fit, but the second drew a small crowd and she remembered their stories of it. The way she screamed, the way she cried, the way she collapsed like an ancient ruin on the face of the earth. But that was then and this was now and her lungs were so much larger and her cries were that much more piercing.

She was dying, dying, dying….

"Here… This isn't fairy magic."

"That's-"

The world dropped away. Pain dropped away. Awareness dropped away. Sakura floated in the great maw of oblivion and sunk like a dead weight into sleep.

There are dreams, there are memories, and there are the things in between.

They made her wear a mask and told her it could never come off until the game was done, but the game went on for days and months and even years. She would try and claw it off any given day or night but the effect was always the same.

And just like she is unable to claw off the mask, she is unable to drown out the beating of the drums and the chants and the callings of all the airy voices sewn into the mist. Her lungs echoes their truth and she knows she is cursed.

Come…drink this, young one and become our champion. Run for us, run far, run wild, run forever. Escape the black court and all her dark winged horrors if you can. Run, run white rabbit, win our chase. This game is your fate forevermore. Become who you were meant to be, changing child. You were chosen for this.

Cursed, cursed, cursed.

She awoke in her bed with the moon heavy in the sky outside her window. Hours later, or days?

She tasted bile on her teeth and pushed back the sheets, knowing she needed to brush her teeth. Swinging around she found her shoes gone, but nothing else of hers had been touched. She felt dirty though, and doubted she had slept for any little amount of time.

She hobbled into the bathroom, walking on legs filled with lead. She was so heavy. Every movement made her world turn a little harsher. She felt like she was wading through murky water.

So slow.

She turned the light on and hissed, hating how harsh the light was on her eyes. She squinted down and fumbled around for her toothbrush and paste. She found it all blindly and set about to cleaning herself, waiting for her eyes to adjust. Eventually they did and she was able to see herself in the mirror. The sight made her wish she couldn't see again.

'Should have expected as much,' she thought to herself before spitting.

Her hair hung limp, her eyes were rimmed in red and shadows, her skin was pale enough to see the veins through it. Maybe she wasn't so horrible to look at, but she remembered quite clearly what she had been before. She remembered her weightless hair curled around her perfect skin and gloss colored lips. She had glowed with immortality and a power not even the fay could rival. She was human, but not. She was more.

Her knees trembled and she smacked a hand over the glass, covering her reflection. Sakura closed her eyes and cupped water to her mouth to rinse. When she looked up again she found herself able to stomach the sight of her human self a little better. Sakura hated how she reacted and how she felt-it didn't make logical sense to be so disgusted-but she knew she would recover again with time. She was strong enough to move on.

Walking back to her bed she crossed in front of the mirror with the cloth still left over it and paused. Her heart hammered in her chest and she grabbed the fabric of her shirt before lifting it over her head to toss to the bed. She grabbed the covering next and pulled it away. Her reflection showed off herself, showed the dark black lines of the tattoos across her chest and the brilliant veins of gold hiding under her skin.

"Antique glass my ass," Sakura hissed out loud, eyes narrowing in anger and she watched her reflection glimmer with dormant magic.

The mirror had been enchanted to show things that had been concealed. Sakura heard of wizards lining their homes with such things to protect themselves from surprises or deception. That meant they either suspected her from the beginning, a guess she doubted, or they were meant to protect the guest from wandering fay. Fay hated truth telling mirrors with a passion. The smell of one was enough to keep them out of most rooms.

Over her heart the skull of a rabbit was inked in never fading black. Behind the skull the pattern of a honeycomb dripped with sweet honey down the valley of her breasts. The rabbit's skull grew a cluster of crystals, and the whole crest was framed with a stalk of foxglove and yarrow on one side, and mistletoe and thorny hawthorn details. Underneath the silk of her black bra she could see the end of the wishbone peaking out, but didn't bother to expose the rest of it. She knew what her sigils were. She knew what her markings meant and where they came from. It would be awhile before they faded again.

Magic fed them, after all.

She yawned and looked back to the door, frowning at the sounds she heard on the other side of it. It would be awhile before her extra sensitive hearing went away too.

"I can hear you there," she called out, knowing her voice was raw and soft. It would be enough for Itachi to hear at least. She doubted his hearing was as common as a human's.

The door's handle turned as Sakura pulled her shirt back on. By the time her head poked through Itachi was standing in the doorway, watching the spot on her chest where her tattoos were. She straightened out her shirt and pulled it down, knowing it wasn't enough to hide everything.

Itachi at least had the decency to avert his eyes and look down until she was done straightening out. "I intruded too early."

Sakura pulled her hair out of her shirt and fluffed it from underneath, knowing it was still mostly limp. "Nothing to intrude on. "How long have I slept?"

"Eight, nearly nine hours." Itachi lifted his eyes and there was a little less animosity there. He nodded towards the window where the moon hung low. "Konohamaru has since gone to bed. He is safe and whole."

What went unsaid between them was 'thanks to you,' and Sakura didn't miss it. But there were other things that went unsaid between them as well.

"What?" Sakura asked after a moment of too long silence. Itachi had questions, she could tell.

But for all his curiosities, Itachi didn't ask a single one. Instead he stepped to the side to make room for her in the doorway. "Sarutobi is entertaining guests. I believe it would be beneficial for you to intrude."

Sakura let her head lull to the side. "Intrude? You didn't come here to summon me?"

"Sarutobi doesn't expect you awake so soon. Magic would not put you to rest, so he forced an alchemist's elixir on you."

Sakura felt a single brow rise. "He's both a wizard and a man of the minor science? It's rare to find someone so open minded. Usually the two sets are bitter antagonists to each other." Sakura swallowed, tasting nothing left in her throat. That was dangerous. "What did he feed me?" She reached for her head again, feeling the phantom pain of her too sharp senses dulling. "I feel awful." She didn't mention how she looked, but she knew Itachi's eyes were sharp enough to draw his own conclusions.

"Is there any other way to feel after such an encounter?"

If it had been anyone else Sakura would have glared, but Sakura knew enough of Itachi after a week of living together to understand his personality didn't allow such 'human' speech. It almost sounded like he was joking with her. His tone was even lighter. It was enough to make her drop her hands to her sides and stare. A moment later she remembered she needed to respond.

"Oh, you're the expert, eh? How many mortal rabbit champions do you know who phase in and out of their fay woven bodies every once in a blood moon?"

He shifted the weight of his body from one leg to the other. "None, and while I have heard of fairy courts using changeling humans as their rabbits, I've never heard of one being crowned a champion. What court did you come from?"

"I wouldn't expect you to know of it. I was from a highly matriarchal court in Virginia." Sakura felt her hands find the skin under the collar of her shirt all on their own and then stray downwards. Her fingerprints found the black lines of the foxglove markings and froze there. "But I will save the details for when I am in front of Sarutobi. The least he can do is keep me from having to repeat the story so many times. Where did you say he was?"

"Entertaining guest. Please, follow me."

Sakura didn't question the sudden change in Itachi's attitude towards her, suspecting it was stemming from a place of almost guilt. At least she hoped he felt a little bit guilt, because she felt a lot of anger for the way things had played out, and there was no way he missed that in the way she carried herself.

Itachi led her down a hallway she didn't recognize until she realized she was in the section of the house she had been warned to stay away from. She mentally kicked herself for not realizing it sooner after waking up. There was no distress or water damage or restoration in process. Whatever excuse they invited was only there to cover for the fact that the west end of the house was thick and choked with the scent of fay magic. Sakura wondered if once her senses dulled back to their usual level, if she would be able to sense the magic.

Itachi opened a set of double wooden doors that led to a room no bigger than most closest, but at the end of this room was another set of double doors. Sakura stopped walking when she noticed what they were made out of.

"You need me to open these for you?" she asked, pointing to the heavy doors made out of iron.

"I wear gloves for such purposes," Itachi answered, tugging on the white fabric at his wrist before pulling open one door with minimal strain. Sakura heard the old iron groan in protests as it swung open. Her nose wrinkled in distaste when she smelled the way Itachi's skin burned in agitation to the ghost contact. Even with wizard gloves fay and the fair folk were highly allergic to iron and shrank from it like moths in the sunlight.

Sakura stepping first, quick to keep from making Itachi wait at the door. She heard him begin to pull it shut while her eyes focused on other things.

Sarutobi stood up straighter from behind the long table where too many charts had been unrolled and laid out on top of each other. Some were mats, others were painted full of stars. Alongside the old man were a pair of males that were unmistakable father and son. When Sarutobi straightened both males merely raise an eyebrow.

"Sakura. What are you doing awake so soon. It's only been a few hours." Sarutobi walked around the table, but doesn't approach her a single step more after reaching her side of the table.

"Then your brew was weaker than the stuff I'm used to, sorry." Sakura nodded to the two new men. "More friends I should be wary of?" she asked, looking to Sarutobi.

The old man flushed, but clasped his hands behind his back and did his best to kept his face from flushing. "No true friend of mine would ever give you reason to be weary. I trust the Nara. You can too."

Sakura heard the final click of the iron door falling back into place, but when she glanced backwards there was no Itachi. She guessed there was something going on with the walls or under the floorboards that banned his kind from entering the room. It was a safe rom.

"That's the funny thing about trust, though. Trust should never be admitted on default. I don't trust you and I wouldn't trust your friends. No matter who you are, you've not done enough or worked long enough to earn my trust. Few have."

"You're upset. I can understand that."

"Upset is too humble a word for what I'm feeling right now." Sakura swallowed, feeling her nails dig into her arms as she crossed them in front of her. "But I'll keep that all in check because there's no way you could have known who I was when you hired me, right? Just like there was no way you could have known that wild fay would endanger your household and live in employees."

"None of that was intentional, I swear to you that. Neither Itachi or I knew you were…what you are." His hands are up, palms out, expression pleading. There's guilt in the lines of his eyes.

"You didn't know I was a white rabbit, but you suspected I was something, didn't you?" Sakura guessed, feeling bile in the back of her throat.

At this point the younger of the two strangers spoke up. "That's my job. I look for people who show patterns of behavior consistent with changeling children. You were one of the stronger candidates."

Sakura glared at him, hating how she didn't have a name to place with his face. Sarutobi had called him a Nara, but that didn't mean anything to her. Was that his last name, his title, his fairy court? "Why would you do something like that?" she asked in measured impatience. "Changeling children are usually too traumatized to be of any good."

"You did an excellent job in school though," the older Nara chuckled, smiling easily. He was the only one in the room impervious to the tension. "Perfect math, right? Never made a mistake? You had quite the reputation among your peers and professors. It's not ever changeling child that comes back with such a fascination for numbers and counting."

Sakura rolled her shoulders, nails still in her arms. "Fay love to count things. It rubbed off on me. Is that why the books are such a mess? It's like someone went through them on purpose, trying to make them as convoluted as possible."

"That was Shikamaru's job," the older Nara chuckled, slapping the younger on the back. "He could have done better at making it look more natural, right?"

"Shut up, you troublesome old man. It did what it needed to do," Shikamaru hissed with a look that made his relationship to the other Nara clear: father and son.

"Still doesn't answer my question."

Sakura's eyes cantered towards Sarutobi. It was then she realized what was different about him from before. The glamor he wore around himself to make others more trusting was no longer in place. This room nullified magic and allowed her to see him clearly. The sunshine and warmth were gone. He was just an old man not above manipulating others. No wonder she felt so comfortable with him so quickly.

"What do you want with me?" Sakura asked, keeping her tone in check. She did her best to maintain an low, even volume that did nothing to betray her agitation. "What do you want with changeling survivors?"

She paced off to the side, closer to the table while keeping the men around it at a distance. Shikamaru's father rubbed his jaw while his son just sighed, rolling his eyes off to the side like he was tired of the whole ordeal and wanted his part to be over.

"We're the clean up crew." Shikamaru might have felt guilty, but he didn't sound it as he avoided her eyes.

Sarutobi swallowed before adding his own explanation. "It's not common practice, but many courts still abduct children to keep for years and return without a care for their memories or mental well being when back in the human world. Like you mentioned earlier, many are traumatized and unable to function properly. They are then shown a new way to live."

He made it sound so soft and kind, but Sakura's lips curled on their own, like a dog raising his hackles. "You wipe their memories to keep from talking."

"Basically," Shikamaru admitted with a shrug. Sarutobi frowned but the boy just went on. "They do more harm than good and the world ought to be separated anyhow."

"And you're the grand, impartial judge and jury for this?" Sakura tilted her head to the side. "But you didn't try to take my memories. Is that because you were waiting for the right time or you weren't sure I had them?" She doubted Sarutobi would try to do anything to her now, after she put herself between his grandson and certain abduction.

"It's not so straightforward," Shikamaru's dad interjected. "Our main concern was to help others, and provide a sort of transitional therapy that suited their individual needs before the memory wipe. That would come later…and almost always with consent."

"There were those who didn't want to keep quiet about what happened to them?" Sakura guessed. She could imagine the type. Fay abducted children all the time for play, for torture, for loving, for amusement. Sakura was selected to be a white rabbit, but other children were taken without such grand plans. They were abandoned and returned quickly enough. "Did you think I would be one of them?"

Shikamaru looked down at something on the table and picked at the papers until one with her photo stood out. "Maybe. You didn't loose any time in the human world when you were taken, which means you were taken to the courts directly. Those cases are statistically the messiest. But you got through school without any arrests or public breakdowns…ah, minus that one."

Sakura could guess what he was looking at was about the time she tried to transform and ended up scaring everyone in her dorm with how the recoil tore her apart.

"That was until today." She blinked and looked for a window or clock but found none. "Or maybe that was yesterday by now. I've no idea what time it is now."

"Shisui's interruption was not planned nor was it anticipated. He's not been such a pest lately and my efforts to keep him at bay have never faltered so poorly until today. You were not supposed to get involved, at least believe that much. I had no idea you were a white rabbit."

"A white rabbit champion, thank you very much," Sakura corrected, feeling bitterness mix in her mouth alongside her words. "And one that made a promise with an unseelie fairy for his freedom."

"Your own fault," Shikamaru muttered, covering his mouth with his fist to hide his own yawn. "No one asked you to go so far for a stranger's kid."

"I'm not saying I'm sorry I did," Sakura nearly hisses, eyes tight with anger. "But that doesn't change the fact that I was lied to and manipulated to this spot. I've mixed myself up in your problems, like it or not, and I want to know what you're going to do about it, Sarutobi."

"I won't touch your memories."

"Not that I thought you could."

He nodded before going on. "But I won't drive you out if that's what your expecting. I'd still like to see the home's finances go back into order and try and help you."

"What do you think I need help with?"

He turned around and picked something off the table. Sakura felt her spine turn to ice when she saw what it was. He held the broken rabbit mask with both hands and nodded to it. "You're human at the core, but harboring great power meant for a game you've long since left. Using such a power is painful for a reason. It has no right to be in your body. You're safer keeping lightning in a bathtub."

"But you can fix me?" Sakura guessed.

"No one can fix you with that," he answered without hesitation. "It will kill you one day if you try to call upon it too many times. Each conjuration is just another chip in the marble masterpiece. One day there won't be anything to chip away at."

Sakura inhaled and held the breath hostage in her throat before exhaling a beat later. "Makes sense. They let me go home, should have guessed they had a reason for being so generous." Shikamaru's father had the decency of looking down when she glanced at both him and his son. Shikamaru just stared. "I didn't plan on using those powers anyways."

"What happens when you go too long without reaching for them? Nightmares? Hallucinations? Anxiety you can't explain."

Cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed….

Sakura waved her hand in front of her face. "Nothing I can't deal with and nothing that's worse than dying."

Shikamaru interrupted. "That was before you made a bargain with an Uchiha." He picked up another paper. "And don't pretend you don't ever touch your powers. You use them plenty often, not just as flashy as transforming."

He flicked the paper across the table to land close enough for her to read the titles. It was Ino's medical records. Sakura reached for it and even saw copies of doctor emails on the back, talking about her paper was tossed her way, and then another. One belonged to her aunt, another to her teacher from senior year.

"Should I go on?"

Sakura felt hot and her chest throbbed. "This is an invasion of privacy."

"Yeah, duh."

A heavy hand came down to slap Shikamaru upside the head. The boy reeled, hissing to turn and look at his father. Shikamaru cursed and gave his father a look but the older Nara didn't budge and his stare was one that could make milk spoil over ice.

"It's unfortunate, but yes, this is a necessary invasion of privacy that helped us confirm your identity as a changeling," Sarutobi interjected. "But the worst thing you could have done for yourself was try to use fay magic to heal them while still a human."

"You think I should have let my friend die of cancer before she was old enough to spell it?"

"No." Sarutobi was quick to answer. "I'm not saying that, but transforming into the White Rabbit to use your powers slows down the degradation. That's one of the reasons it is so painful. You're using magic in a proper body that's meant to handle it. The only times that you're really chipping away at your life force are during transformations." He put the mask down. "Please let me help you repair some of the damage while you continue to work for me. I know I've made mistakes and I know you don't trust me or approve of what I've done, but it was always my desire to help. I want to help you."

He sounded honest enough about believing he was only trying to do what was best. He had done a good job of justifying his own actions, even the morally gray ones. But, in spite of all that Sakura knew it wasn't enough to trust him so soon. Maybe he was really just the old soul who wanted to help others out of the goodness of his heart. Maybe he really was a good guy.

And maybe he wasn't.

He could just as likely be the sort of person who didn't play for the sake of justice and goodness, but rather self interests and the status quo. Keeping others silent could just as well be a favor he fulfills for the conservative, more secretive fay. Who knows if such a deal existed between a wizard who was also an alchemist, and any number of fay. It was unsettling to know that he had a fay servant so close acting so devoted.

Either way…it wasn't a decision she was going to make tonight.

"I'll sleep on it. Give me a few days to focus on your financial work before I make a decide on whether or not to involve myself with your family and friends any more than I already have. You hired me for a job and I'll keep my end of the contract up by doing it, but I need time to see if I'm willing to do anything more, much less believe what you just told me."

He seemed to deflate in relief. "Thank you. I won't ask for more. You must be exhausted. Do you need Itachi to escort you to your room?"

"I remember the way, and I can see myself out. I'll get right back to work once I wake, whenever that is."

Sakura raised a hand and waved to both Nara boys before turning on her heel and heading back towards the iron door. It was just as heavy as she remembered it being. On the other side she closed it as far as it would go without latching and left it there for a solid minute. Once the door sealed she wouldn't be able to hear what was said inside.

"So you're not going to tell her about the four sleepers or the Uchiha's stupid plan to end the damn world?" Shikamaru asked in a tired drawl. Sakura heard another heavy slap before the son cursed at his father again.

"That's not a problem we wanted to drag anyone new into," his father replied.

Shikamaru's tone was more of a whine than anything. "We decided that before we knew she was a White Rabbit."

"That doesn't change anything. It's not her problem. If anything, she deserve to be more free of their wretched world than any of the others. We stick by what we agreed to originally."

Sakura left after that and slept for twenty nine hours.

III

Sarutobi didn't bother her about her past after that, he never mentioned it or even brought it up when she went to him with questions about the finances. So a week passed without incident.

People came to the house and she heard the visitors at the door, but that didn't have anything to do with her so she didn't leave her study for any of it. For all she knew it was all legitimate issues for his business or property management, and had nothing to do with the fay or that interloping Uchiha. She ignored the way magic turned the air in the house and made her think she was eating rotten apples whenever she swallowed. Plenty of honey in her tea and she was as good as dumb.

It was actually the old man's grandson that bothered her the most. The first few days after the incident he was too shy to do anything more than hide around corners. Eventually he got brave enough to let himself be seen in her doorway, but when she never commented on his lingering or acknowledge his presence he ran off after long.

One day she did come back from a walk to find her desk disturbed in a way Itachi never did. Where she worked was a plate of cookies and a hand draw thank you card complete with misspellings. Her papers had been pushed aside to make room for the plate and a glass of half filled milk.

Sakura drank from the glass before grabbing a cookie and letting the chocolate taste wash away another wave of rotten apples in the back of her throat. Years ago it had been necessary to know when others were using magic around her, but there had been a reason that she tried so hard to block her senses once back in the human realms, once back from her time in the fairylands. That was then and this was now. She didn't have anything to do with the wizard or his family problems.

A scuffling at the door made her look up and see the half hidden figure of the grandson on his belly peeking into her room from behind the door jam. She took another loud bite of cookie and washed it down with milk before deciding to do something different this time.

"You." She nodded with her chin. "Come on in here."

He came in, standing up from where he had been hiding on the floor and brushing the dust off the front of his shirt. Once spoken to his hesitancy seemed to melt away. He came right up to her desk and stopped with his chin resting on the edge.

"Did I mess up our work?" he asked, glancing sideways at her papers and then at the plate of cookies she was still eating from. "It kinda looked like a mess."

"It is a mess, and it's more of a mess, but at least I have cookies." Sakura licked her lips clean and washed down the taste with a sip of milk before narrowing her eyes over the glass at the way the young boy was studying her. He wasn't glaring, but his look was close to intimidating. "What is it?"

"You're magic, but you're not a fairy like Itachi. How'd that happen?"

She shrugged, replacing the milk glass on the coaster. "How much did your grandfather tell you?"

"He doesn't tell me anything. I'm not supposed to know about this sort of stuff anymore. Like, before Itachi came he told me stuff, but now he says I don't have to know and Itachi won't say anything about it." He put his hands behind his head and interlocked his fingers to keep his arms up. "Except when a bad thing happens, then they tell me to run and hide, but nothing else."

"That's frustrating," Sakura murmured, already guessing the real reason why Sarutobi's grandson was sniffing her out. "It sort of sucks to not know what's going on around you or what's happening."

His eyes stayed oddly fixed on her, like he was watching something that might disappear if he blinked. "Yeah…but you know something, don't you?"

"I know lots of things. Why should that matter?" she teased, smirking in a knowing way.

Konohamaru let his arms drop so he could grab the edge of her desk and pull himself up. "I'm already eight years old, I think I should know stuff too. What's going on?"

Sakura laughed before reaching for a stray crumb left behind on her plate. "I'd like to know that too. I was tricked by your grandfather into coming here. I can't tell you what the old man wants or what he's doing."

"Then what are you doing?"

"His finances."

Konohamaru slapped the table with both his palms. "No. What are you doing with your magic? Pops won't show me how to use any and he blocked all mine when Itachi showed up, but I know you have it. I saw it when you rescued me. What are you?"

"I'm a human girl who is working on cleaning up your grandfather's books," Sakura started to say, but stopped before she could finish with a snappy remark.

Biting her lip she looked down at the boy who looked barely old enough to see over the top of her desk. She could only assume what it was like to not know so much and still fear it all. He was older than she had been when they took her, but not by much and she remembered what it felt like to have an ocean of questions under her skin, each one more impossible to ignore than the next.

"How much do you know about changelings?" Sakura asked, sitting down into her chair.

Konohamaru trotted around the high edges of her desk until he was behind it with her. She was pulling blank papers out of a notebook and laying them out flat. "Is that the shape shifter or the fairy fakes?"

"The second one." Sakura began to sketch. "Changelings are humans who are taken from this world and raised in the fairy world alongside fairies, or they are fairies raised among humans in the human world. Basically, a changeling is a person who changed places from where they should be to where they shouldn't be."

"Is that what you are?"

"Yes and no. I was taken from my family when I was a little younger than you and I grew up in a fairy court." She stopped sketching to point at him and make sure he was still watching her and listening. "That's important because fairy courts aren't touched or affected by human time."

Konohamaru nodded mutely and she began sketching again.

"The fairy courts have this game they like to play, where each court picks a fairy or a changeling child and gives them the title of White Rabbit or Black Rabbit."

"Like in chess?"

Sakura thought of the pearl and obsidian chess set in Sarutobi's study. She had one of her own in the far corner, but the pieces were carved out of light and darker wood. "Yeah, there's a white court and and black court and each one picks a rabbit to race."

"Is that what Shisui is? I heard him talk about it once when he was shouting at Itachi. They said they wanted a rabbit for the races. Were they talking about me?"

A lie would have been sweet, and he might have even believed her. Sarutobi and Itachi were already lying to him, trying to protect him and keep him safe in his innocence. "Yeah, they were probably talking about taking you for that reason, but I'm not positive. Your grandfather didn't know I was a White Rabbit when he offered me this job."

"Was it bad?"

Sakura blinked. "What part?"

"Being a White Rabbit. You still have powers, right? Isn't that a cool part? I remember being able to use some of my-being able to do things before all my abilities were sealed up." Konohamaru reached down and tugged up the hem of his white GhostBuster tee shirt to show off a seal that swirled in on itself like the cyclone's eye. He poked the fat of his belly before dropping his tee shirt down over it. "I can't do anything now."

Sakura swallowed and took another long sip of milk, washing down the taste of magic with another cookie and drink. Konohamaru seal was, without a doubt, magic. "You're different from me. You were born with magic, I had magic put into me to make me into the White Rabbit for their games."

"Do you miss it?"

Sakura might have staggered if she wasn't sitting down. Her head throbbed with the memories she couldn't forget. "No, I'm very glad to be back in my own world in my own time with people who aren't trying to murder me."

Konohamaru frowned, inching closer. "Not that part, I mean about using magic. You have to miss it or else you wouldn't have used it when you rescued me."

"Kid, I used my magic so you wouldn't die, that had nothing to do with wanting or not wanting."

Konohamaru leaned forward on the balls of his feet, tipping a bit. "Yeah, but you missed it, didn't you?"

Sakura snorted, hating how his questions made her skin crawl. She remembered the itch, the watering of her mouth, the widening of her ribs as a new force filled her and made her feel strong. She was strong, she was powerful. No one could hurt her, no one could catch her, no one could make her scream anymore.

She could run.

Sakura had to shut her eyes to the memory of the world running into a watercolor blur around her as wind made a pair of wings over her shoulders in the draft she cut. To run, to fly with feet over the earth…no matter how horrible everything else was, running was never terrible.

"Maybe, some of it was nice, but I'm not in that world anymore, and I have a human body. Using magic isn't easy anymore, and there's a lot of kickback if I transform." She tapped her pen to that paper, watching the design come together. "Your grandfather wanted to show me how to get around that but I've no need of magic anymore. I'm better forgetting about it and leaving it all behind me."

Konohamaru kept quiet, watching her sketch a few more lines across the paper, hatching in between the darker lines to show shadow. "If I was taken would I have been made into a White Rabbit like you?"

Sakura didn't stop sketching, but she frowned at the direction their conversation turned. "No. I came from a different court. Shisui is from the court that would produce a Black Rabbit, but even if you were taken there is no guarantee you would survive long enough to become their Black Rabbit."

Sakura put the pen down and blew across the paper, helping the ink dry. Konohamaru inched closer, looking over her shoulder at the design. "What is that?"

Sakura hummed, smiling sardonically. "Guess he didn't tell you much. Well, these are icons, more specifically they are victory icons. Humans are mostly born without magic, and fay are born with only a set amount of magic depending on their station. Noble fay aren't allowed to play in the games, so only the lesser fay with weaker magic can be chosen. Before the games, fay compete in trials to win new magics. Winners get victory icons. Sometimes they have to kill others for these and at the very end, the strongest one left standing is chosen as a Rabbit. This is the part where you likely would have been killed. Traditionally, White and Black Rabbits are almost always fay."

"You're not."

"I'm an anomaly. I also lost a lot of the games to qualify."

"So, what did you do?"

Sakura huffed, licking a finger and dragging it across the now empty plate of cookies to pick up crumbs. She dragged her fingers over her teeth to catch the last bits. "Kid, I'm not here to tell you stories."

"But you're the only one who talks to me and want to know." He rocked back on his heels, grabbing the edge of his shirt above his belly button. Sakura though he might try to lift it up over his seal again. "It's not fair I don't get to know."

"My history is my business, you don't get to demand I tell you anything about it," Sakura sternly replied, making sure her voice was even and her eyes met his. "There are a lot of things that happened that I don't ever want to have to remember, much less share with someone else. I'm not telling your grandfather any of this either."

The eight year old blinked, dropping the edge of his shirt and bouncing up and down in place with a new thought. "I wasn't going to blab to him, honest! I'm not a teller. I won't tell on you, I promise."

"I wouldn't care if you did or didn't." Sakura waved her hand between them. "But my history is off limits. You can ask about other things, but my history is mine. You got that, kid?"

Konohamaru nodded, mouth closed. Sakura sighed and grabbed the cookie plate. "Fine, then get me more snacks. I'm starving for sweet things up here."

"Then will you tell me about the fairy games-not the ones you were in, but like…maybe the kind Itachi would be in?"

"I have no idea what that stuff does, but I'll tell you about the Rabbit races, just make sure you have those cookies. I don't feel like working on tax codes anymore."

"Yeah, you got it boss," Konohamaru chirped, ignoring the way Sakura made a disgusted face at the endearing nickname. He was way too friendly for being so short in her opinion. Since when did she get along with kids?

Still, he asked interesting questions for being only eight years old. When he pressed her about missing the magic…she felt like she was talking to someone who could see right through her. It was probably because that's how he felt about his own magic being sealed up, but it made the truth no less real for Sakura.

She looked down at the ink drawing and grimaced at the familiar pattern of her icons. The same pattern had been inked over her chest in magic and stitched into the fabric of her victory cape, a red cloth hanging heavy over a snow white dress sewn with pearls and lace. She remembered too clearly the feel of her icons' stitching.

Her mouth watered and she felt her breastbone hum as heat bloomed around the marks on her skin. The Yarrow for a wand, the mistletoe for a blade, the hawthorn for a snaplock rifle, the foxglove for-for-for a…

Her head split with ringing and she hissed, reaching up to hold her skull, fearing it would fall apart in her hands. Was she bleeding or were the memories just so red. She counted backwards from thirty and the pain lessened, so she did that one more time. At the end she was able to look up again. The room was still too bright, but her head wasn't falling apart into her hands.

Sakura crossed her arms on the desk and laid her head down, closing her eyes and resolving to wait until Konohamaru came back with more cookies. She felt like spoiling herself a little. She had already finished so much paperwork. A few breaks wouldn't put her too far behind.

Sakura stood and rounded the desk, shoving her hands into her pockets as she stepped out of the room with the knowledge that if she didn't start moving or doing something active, she would fall asleep at her desk again.

She ended up in a hallway close to the front lined with suits of armor. Sakura used her phone to snapchat a story for each one that ended in a horrible joke that was sure to make Ino laugh only because they were so bad. Sakura joked like an old man.

'This one's named Americano, this one Fernando.'

But even that got boring so Sakura left and wandered a bit more, ignoring the texts demanding more paparazzi shots of Itachi from the blond with a seemingly one track mind. Sakura had accidentally shot a pic with him in the background and like a shark with blood in the water, Ino was zeroed in.

"Oh."

Sakura turned on her heel, lazily spinning until she was face to face with the aforementioned Uchiha who was coming up behind her with a pitcher of water for the indoor plants. She couldn't' help it, she grinned teasingly.

"Aren't you supposed to be conspiring with Sarutobi?"

If he could, Itachi might have flushed at her accusation. Instead, he huffed a quiet breath in mild irritation. "Hardly. I do have duties aside from mischief." He held up the pitcher of water.

"Aren't there servants for that?"

"I am the servant for this. The season is too volatile to risk further human lives."

"Oh," Sakura teased, voice low and lids lowered. "But I guess my life is fine to risk. Not like I can't handle my own."

Itachi lifted the pitcher higher in his arms, frowning at her accusation. "That was not our intention. Changelings and fay survivors come all the time to Sarutobi for help managing their trauma."

"I've managed my feelings just fine," Sakura snorted, rolling her eyes and fitting her hands over her hips.

Itachi raised a single brow and drew a long gaze up over her that ended with her eyes. "Clearly." His voice dripped sarcasm that made her bristle worse than usual.

"I never said I was perfect. I said I was managing. This is what managing looks like, asshole."

Itachi blinked, and then his brows furrowed in hurt. Sakura noticed it was at the insult that he took offense and wanted to bite back her words. She wasn't normally so testy with people until they started insulting her first. Itachi didn't seem like he was used to getting cursed at by human girls in the hallway.

"Sorry," Sakura muttered, looking down and then away. "That came out harsher than I meant it."

Itachi nodded his head, accepting her apology. "You are within your rights to be upset, and I will easily admit that your ordeal is considerably more extensive than what we've seen before. I've only seen what Black Rabbits go through. I can imagine it's no less harrowing for other courts who take in mortals."

Sakura subconsciously reached up and caught herself, moving her hands from her chest to her shoulders, hugging herself and ignoring the tattoos on her chest; the yarrow, the foxglove, the hawthorn, the mistletoe…She swallowed on reflex and breathed a little easier when there was no rotten apple taste to rock her.

"Heh, maybe we should compare notes sometimes," Sakura joked, trying to make the mood light. Itachi was the wrong person to try that with and she dropped her hands from her shoulders when he saw the weight of his gaze on her. He would notice. "It's been better since my body's caught up with my soul. When I came back I was an eight year old girl again and all those years meant nothing. I did all these things and endured all these trials but I still needed a booster box to reach the sink in the bathroom."

"You mean it's been easier to hide things, now that you're older."

Sakura forced herself to laugh and roll her shoulders. "Sure, whatever." She closed her eyes to the memory and shook her head, feeling her hair slap her cheeks.

"How are the night terrors?" Sakura didn't answer and her easy facade slipped away. Itachi pushed on. "The migraines, the disassociation? Last year a woman came to us who had developed a secondary personality that made her sleepwalk miles after midnight, and she just got stuck at one of their parties for a few years. She didn't have magic screaming in her bones, everyone knows that's worse."

"It's been better," Sakura admitted.

Not touching the gifts of the Fay as like sinking. The longer she went without using her gifts the further she deseeded and the more pressure piled up atop her. Using her gifts to remove a tumor, to do a little something extra was like letting some of the pressure off, but there was always the recoil to contend with, and the recoil was always worse than the pressure. It was better to go without touching those damned gifts than to feel their withdrawal.

She was still tasting rotten fruit in her mouth days after transforming and running in the mask. How much longer before the heightened senses faded? At least the night terrors weren't as bad, but there were still migraines when she remembered things.

"Traditionally, magic conflicts with the moral form. Your human body wasn't made for magic, not like a witch or wizard's. The only time you can use magic without the side effects would be in your transformed stage. The only drawback there is when you force yourself back into your human form."

"Yeah, that's super fun."

"Exhausting yourself or using your magic would help ease the transition. Also, the more you transform the easier transition will become in the mortal realms."

Sakura huffed. "I never had such an issue when I was in your lands. But I don't have a reason to use magic anymore and I don't want to be put in a situation where I have to. I deserve my peace."

"Have you found it?"

"What?" Sakura blinked, confused.

"Have you found peace?"

No. The voice in her head laughed and Sakura forced herself to smile. She had a sarcastic answer ready but the back of her mouth prickled and she nearly gagged at the strength of the taste. Her hand snapped over her lips, afraid she would gag from tensed, sensing it too.

Itachi moved to see the water pitcher on a nearby table, careful that the base rested on the doily and not the wood. His voice was hard as he brushed past Sakura towards the manor's entrance. "That's not Sarutobi."

"Shisui?" Sakura feared how her voice shook.

"Not nearly as much of a headache."

Sakura followed Itachi to the stairs and down to the main hall, hand hanging on the banister when Konohamaru met her at the base of the stairs, a plate of cookies in one hand. He grabbed her shirt sleeve and tugged hard.

"Kid?" Sakura's eyes were hard.

Itachi turned and smiled back at her over his shoulder. "Please, would you take him to your study. Danzo does not have the patience for children. Sarutobi will be here shortly."

"And I do?" Sakura snorted. When she glared down at Konohamaru he just grinned up at her and offered her the plate of cookies. Sakura huffed and picked one up. "Fine," she relented heading back up the stairs to her study.

The young boy followed, but she stopped him before they could disappear down the hall. He gave her a look but she held his shoulder and pointed to the doorway with her chin.

"I wanna watch." Konohamaru didn't fight her on it. Minutes later the guests swept in, trailing the lingering wisps of fog on their heels. There were two of them, a man older than most grandpas and a kid.

The man in the hallway was tall, taller than Sarutobi, and dressed in a long wool coat draped over the shoulders. It was a sooty gray, same as the rest of his clothes, but under the collar rested a white, thin scarf that trailed down his front on either side like a death flag. Behind him trailed a younger boy, maybe sixteen, dressed in faded jean and a graphic tee.

Sakura staggered where she stood, eyes hooked on the younger boy. He looked like he was trying so hard to be normal, so hard to be inconspicuous, but everything about his was wrong.

She grabbed Konohamaru by the shoulder and pointed down at the pair and hissed quietly into his ear, "Who's that?"

"Itachi told you, Danzo came and he brought his son with him."

"Not Danzo, the boy. Who is the boy? That's not his son." Even if it was possible a man as old as him could father a child, there was no way they were related. Wrong ears, wrong eyes, wrong chin. Sai had features Danzo didn't.

Konohamaru winced at the hand on his shoulder and Sakura dropped her arms back to her side. "That's…um, I think his name is Sai. He's been away. I only tried talking to him once when he came over, but he was like a robot and it freaked me out. Danzo never brings him."

A burst of black feathers and then Sarutobi was there, standing atop the pile of feathers that faded from under his shoes one by one. A burst of magic made the taste in her mouth bitter.

Itachi stood in front of Sarutobi and gestured to a nearby room. Grudgingly, Danzo nodded and swept past the Uchiha to lead his son into the room and wait for the other two before the door shut, sealing them inside. Sakura could probably make out a few things through the walls, but her hearing wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best without the full extent of her heightened senses.

"How much you wanna bet they're talking about you?" Konohamaru asked. Sakura grimaced and took another cookie. The chocolate was almost as good as honey.

She took the boy back to her study and put on music before pulling out some papers to work on. She didn't see what exactly Konohamaru was doing, but it involved something on his smart phone. Sakura only glared at him once and stopped herself from making a comment about how, 'when I was your age we didn't even have cell phones.' It was only when the static of his device made her ears ring did she look up and glare.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, glaring.

He touched his bottom lip and grinned. "Trying to listen. Sometimes they don't bother to seal off the room and the microphones still work."

Sakura didn't move. "I think you should stop before you get caught."

"You're not going to stop me, or tell me it's a bad thing?"

"I just told you I thought you'd get caught. I'm not your mom, don't expect anything more than that." She flipped another paper over and flattened it out, looking for the date. When she saw it was from last year she sorted it into the basket pile on her desk. Everything else went into a new banker box.

"What's the Witch's Sabbath?"

Sakura looked up from her papers. "It's a section of a symphony." She shouldn't have known that specific detail, but she did. "Symphonie Fantastique, composed by Hector Berlioz, there's a part called the Witch's Sabbath. Why?"

"They're talking about it."

Sakura huffed. "It's a nickname or a code for something else. There's no literal sabbath for witches. They have their own holidays and traditions but I've never heard of a literal sabbath…though I'm no expert. Fay didn't like wizards or witches much."

"Why?"

Fay don't like being bound and wizards and witches can do that, they can summon a fairy against his or her will and bind them to be a servant or ask them for stuff. No one likes that."

"Itachi's not like that."

Sakura snorted. "Sure, yeah, whatever. They're all a big happy family. What else are they talking about on your phone?"

"You."

Sakura rolled her eyes. He was watching her with a impish grin, happy to have something he thought was important to share with her. Smug.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Danzo wants you to work for him."

"I'm busy with the finances here, thanks." She turned over another paper, already knowing where the date would be.

Konohamaru shook his head. "Not like that. He wants you to work on the Witch's Sabbath for him. Actually, he wants to talk to you himself but pops is saying no. Oh wait, that was Itachi. Pops said no too…I think. Yeah. Now they're talking about Shisui and that's a bad word I can't repeat." He leveled a fake serious look her way. "You'll have to use your imagination for that."

Sakura felt like rubbing her face, instead she just stared at him hard. "How old are you?"

"Um…I have a girlfriend, so I don't think it's a good idea you hit on me." He sounded so proud of himself too. Sakura wanted to smack his head and then laugh.

"That Uchiha Shisui creep dodged a bullet with your smart ass."

He squirmed in his seat a bit, fighting to hide his smile. "I'm not supposed to hear that word." He sounded like he was trying not to laugh. Sakura just snorted and went back to her work.

Minutes later Konohamaru went stiff in his seat. He strained to hear what was coming through his phone and Sakura frowned at his look of concentration before the ground in front of her buckled and snapped with a flash. Konohamaru screamed and jumped back but Sakura just reached for a letter opener and slid her hand under the desk, ready to flip it.

"So this is what the Uchiha have been so upset about," Danzo rumbled, his voice a grave of low tones. Sakura felt the graveled texture of his words fall over her skin.

"You want something with me?" Sakura hissed, spotting the shadow behind him move.

Sai stepped out and stood off to the side, face empty and expression blank. Her heart stuttered for his voided expression. He was maybe fifteen, still coming into his limited acne. He was a kid, just a kid.

"No, not especially. I've needed some help but Sarutobi is keeping you to himself and I'll be borrowing Itachi for my job. No, I'm here to introduce the both of you." Danzo nodded to the boy at his side and Sai stepped up. "This is Sai, he'll be left behind in Itachi's place to provide some mediocre support. He's a little better than pathetic, so don't expect much, but you should be able to survive with Sarutobi."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Danzo watched her for a moment before humming. "He's really leaving you alone, isn't he?" Outside Sakura heard footsteps on the stairs. "What a wasteful fool. I suppose you shall see for yourself what the Witch's Sabbath will be."

"I don't have anything to do with that."

"How convenient. I suppose if you don't like mornings we should stop the sun from rising too. Terrible news, but the world still turns and the wicked still rot regardless of if you get out of bed or not. Stick your head in the sand if you must, but the earth will still crack and the sky will still fall."

Danzo leaned his head back just as the door fell open to let Itachi stalk in. Sarutobi trailed behind, looking murderous.

"This was not what we agreed upon, Danzo. Your business is with me."

"And so it shall be." Danzo turned, leaving his back open to Sakura even as Sai refused to move, standing like a statue that never blinks, staring at her. "To apologize for my ambition I'll leave the boy with you a day early. Do with him whatever you please. Return him if you please, it won't matter to me one way or the other. I doubt he'll make it as a black rabbit at this rate."

Sai doesn't react and there's not a sign on his face that he heard anything. His eyes went on forever and there was nothing to them. Empty all the way through. He was a soulless thing for all appearances. Sakura's heart pinched painfully within her ribcage and swelled against its walls. It's been so long since she last cared like this.

"What the hell is wrong with you, fuckjar?" Sakura seethed. The room went quiet after that. Itachi and Sarutobi watched her with muted expressions while Danzo turned back to her slowly. Sakura set her jaw and her hands found her hips to settle there. "Are you really that much of a tin-brain or do you really not care that Sai's standing right there and can hear every hurtful thing that comes out of your mouth?"

Sai still didn't react and Sakura heart hurt so much more. He was so deep inside himself she doubted there was anything that could reach him anymore. "And you," she bit, pointing directly at Sai. He didn't react and the pain in her chest doubled. "Don't think you're not here for this. You're not put on this earth to suffer. Say something."

"Foolish child." Danzo breathed, exhaling like it was such a burden. He turned to glare down at her the way a parent would glare at an unruly child. "He's not made to respond for himself. He's perfect in obedience and he need be nothing else. Waste your breath if you wish." He turned back to Sarutobi and nodded. "Until tomorrow's tomorrow."

With a nod he was gone, but the pain in Sakura's heart remained as Sai stared blankly ahead.

IV

Sakura glared at the tapestry in front of her, keeping her arms folded. "No, I remember the story, you don't need to explain it again."

Sarutobi chuckled, holding on to his good humor as Sakura stewed. "Regardless of the validity of the story, there's a tribe of such horned women who practice such magic in this area. They only cross over during the autumn season on specific days. Each day is a day Danzo and I ward our houses heavily."

"So why did you have to send off Itachi?" Sakura asked, peeking back over her shoulder at the stoic Uchiha who accompanied them.

"Additional protection. The Horned Women are not a force to be taken lightly. My wards are stronger than Danzo's and if I can survive Shisui a couple of horned women should be a walk in the park. He's helped me in the past so I owe him."

"Horned women aren't witches or humans, they're creatures all upon themselves. I'm pretty sure the Fay like to avoid them so just having one on the property should be enough, but Sai and I aren't Fay, no matter what we look like. We're no deterrent."

"Is that why you asked Itachi and I to set time aside before he left?"

Sakura glared sideways at the older man while he just stood there, taking it. With a huff Sakura dropped her hands and turned to him, scowl lessening. "I don't think it's wise to rely or trust Sai. I don't think he's in his right mind no matter how well he may work on projects or in fights. It's not right to rely on him, he's a mess."

'And you're not?'

"He's been doing well with Danzo from an objective standpoint. He does all that's asked of him with-"

"That's bullshit I don't care about," Sakura hissed, glaring back at Itachi who didn't flinch. "He's barely sixteen. He's a kid. He doesn't deserve this. What the hell are you people thinking? He's a kid. I don't want him fighting." Her heart was still a bleeding mess in her chest and she wished it would just heal up already. She didn't like hurting so much for a kid she barely knew.

"It's all he knows," Itachi tried, his tone softer. "He won't know what to do with himself."

"Has anybody tried to let him figure that out on his own?"

"What Danzo does…" Sarutobi let the sentence trail off and Sakura didn't want to hear the rest of what the old man wanted to say. For a human, the man they called Danzo was pretty soulless.

"Yeah, I get it," Sakura lied, not getting or understanding any of it. "But it goes back to not trusting Sai to be the only one we rely on. I know I said I didn't want to have anything to do with this, but I'll make an exception this one time." Sakura held up a finger for emphasis. "Just this one time. I'm not making a habit out of this."

"I wouldn't want you to." Sarutobi reached out and placed a hand over her pointed finger, rubbing his thumb into her skin. The old leather of his skin was more comfortable than she wanted to admit, and it stirred up an old memory of her own grandfather from before she was older than six, doing the same thing. "I'll show you how to control your powers better and maybe you could help show Sai something of your own."

"Sure," Sakura huffed. "What does that look like?"

Sarutobi pulled something out of his breast pocket, pushing back his tweed jacket to reach the inner layers of his vest. Below the pocket a slip held up the gold chain of a dangling pocket watch. Sakura inhaled as he uncorked it and remembered the last time he forced something down her throat.

"That's the stuff that knocked me out after my last recoil." She didn't remember it's taste or if it burned going down, but she remembered what happened to her afterwards.

"The last time you transformed you drew on precious little of your powers and it was all the more for you to try and force back when you reverted back. Itachi's already told you this, but using your powers and exhausting yourself will help with the transition."

Sakura waved her hands between herself and Sarutobi, eying the vile with hesitation. "What if I don't need to use my powers, or how will I know how much to use to avoid the recoil?"

"There are no known answers to your questions until we practice. That is what Itachi will be helping you with. I'll be here in case we need this."

Sakura turned to face Itachi but when she moved the room around her spun, melting into something else. She staggered and took in the trees, the foliage, the earth, the sky. They were in the courtyard outside. Sarutobi hadn't moved, but he was smiling kindly while Itachi took a step towards her, palms out. Black birds were circling overhead.

"Will you trust me for this?" Itachi asked, taking another step. He was little more than an arm's reach away from her. If he lunged he could have his hands around her neck. He didn't take another step.

Sakura didn't ask what, didn't question it anymore, but squared her shoulders and set her jaw. "Tell me what to do."

"Just watch me."

Itachi rippled and Sakura tasted sweet apples in her mouth as the feathered cloak billowed out behind him like a pair of split wings. His eyes were spinning red and she recognized all the signs of a Black Fay Hunter, the fay designated to hunt White Rabbits in the games; light armor, soundless footfalls, eyes like kaleidoscopes.

Her heart refused to hammer as she grappled for courage.

He advanced upon her and lifted his hands to her face. Sakura doubted she even breathed as he cupped either side and tilted her head back so she stared straight up into red, spinning eyes. Her hands were warm through the gloves and she felt free to relax into them even though her heart would never allow it.

'Fall into a world all my own' they seemed to say.

So Sakura did.

Sakura landed in a bed of dried German Statice in shades of pearl and lavender. The petite flower blossoms shattered when she moved and dropped from their stalks as she stood. The world was dead all around her and she struggled to breath, inhaling a familiar decay.

Itachi touched down a handful of paces away from her, the breeze of his landing blowing away the dead, dried flowers. Sakura saw rose heads scatter amidst the mess. There was nothing else but rolling tan fields full of dried flowers and grasses. The sky was a tired blue with sick stars hanging low, dripping under their own weight in melted agony.

It was a dead world as far as the eye could see, and a perfect place to decimate.

Sakura inhaled and realized the world she was in wasn't connected to the land of the Fay, this was somewhere else; a place all Itachi's. The recoil would still haunt her here.

Itachi held out a hand and above his palm appeared the hilt of a sword. Gasping it firmly, the blade materialized out of curling statice flowers.

Sakura took half a step back. "I'm a White Rabbit, not a fighter. What do you expect me to do?"

The iris of his eyes glowed like rare rubies while the lids and surrounding skin grew darker as blackness spread across the top half of his face. His features were birdlike and Sakura didn't doubt the petite fangs in his mouth any more than the teeth lining his throat.

"Run."

Her heart picked up, holding a beat, ready to drop, ready to pump, but before it could there was gold in her veins as thick as honey and she was no longer a creature of the bitter blood but something far faster.

Her feet dug deep into the earth for traction as her whole body followed. Only the first few tracks betrayed her, after that she was wind gliding over surface, hardly touching down as the world around her blurred.

She felt it deep inside her, seeping out through her skin. It burned her to ignore it, so she didn't. Her nature was not her own anymore. Her nature was a single command. She was made of this command. She was made of one word. She was only this:

Run.

Sakura ran. It was as simple and complicated as that. The universe was unfolding all around her in a mess of wet watercolor colors as she traversed the stars. Gravity couldn't touch her as she made friction out of air and climbed it like stairs. She knew what she was doing in her body before her mind could catch up, and before she knew it she was wheeling sharply in space to turn towards the copse of trees, nearly dead and heavy with dried leaves refusing to fall.

She slipped between impossible spaces twisting herself between dead trunks and over debris, deeper into the dark and dead woods until hands made out of bark looped her ankles. Sakura fell into a roll and sprang back up, pivoting to see faces in the bark, arms in the branches, and bodies between the trees.

Not a woods.

A Brace of Dryads surrounded her and she didn't doubt this was set up by Itachi. There was no way he could have caught her on speed alone, no hunter is ever that fast, but traps were not against the rules. It was one of the main ways hunters caught rabbits.

Sakura pushed out with her magic against the victory icon on her chest. She felt the tattoo of the yarrow twig hum with power before it appeared in her hand as a branch, young with tiny yellow buds along the length. The Dryads didn't notice or didn't care. Their eyes, typically bright with life, started dark and dull straight ahead as they moved with withering bodies. She doubted they were truly alive.

More magic pooled in her palm and she shook the yarrow branch. It melted in flickering yellow light, revealing the pointy wand polished and engraved around the handle. Sakura swung it once and felt her whole arm vibrate.

Yarrow, for magic.

Smoke curled around her fingers and she grasped the wand firmly, focusing on channeling her honey magic into a needle's point. The tip glowed red and she saw with her mind's eye what she wanted to happen next before she released her hold over the magic and let it run wild from her wand's tip.

The world around her burned. She was an inferno, a flickering white spirit amid the red flames.

"Good."

She turned, smoking wand raised and posed in elegant form. Itachi stood at the immediate end of it. A step forward and it poked into his shirtfront. She hadn't heard him move and never knew he had been so close. Seventeen years ago this would have gotten her killed.

Not caring it was Itachi she fired a beam of unfiltered light from her wand's tip-the easiest thing for her to manage in an instant that would actually cause some damage. It shot Itachi back and he hit a tree hard, sending out black smoke and red embers from where he struck the burned thing.

Sakura whirled around again for another strike but Itachi's sword was up and the lightning from her tip fed right into the metal of his weapon with a horrible cackle and snap. She rounded on him again with fire, but that was even worse. His eyes glowed as his sword took in even more of her magic.

Sakura felt her heart hammer in familiar panic. She knew precious little aside from the most basic and minor of spells. The Yarrow Wand was one of the most draining out of all her victory icons, but it was also the most destructive. It had just been so long since she last used it, calling forth elements to manipulate was all she could manage.

Itachi didn't press forward, but held his ground, digging in as her fire sputtered and turned rocky. She screamed, fire flickering into viscous magma that broke apart the ground under Itachi and left him on a path of earth in a lake of lava.

Sakura poured even more into her yarrow wand and choking black clouds seeped from the sides of the wood as sparks of lightning danced out from the tip.

Angry, angry, angry, the sparks thickened and clattered together into the coiled form of a cobra rising up, hood spread. It sprang with a clash of blinding light amidst the smoke and Itachi had to swing to deflect it this time. When he brought his sword down there was smoke, but no more magic. Another swing of his blade and the black clouds parted, but there was no Sakura.

The choking woodsmoke made scent tracking nearly impossible.

"What a lovely trick," Itachi murmured aloud, stepping forward into the lava that didn't burn. Uchiha could never be harmed by fire.

Magic had a scent of its own and she was heavy with it, she knew. He would find her out, sooner or later, but he wouldn't catch her. All she had to do was run. All she had to do was keep running. All she had to do to win was run forever.

She told this to herself as she pushed on, staying in motion for what seemed like hours until the ground turned to mud around her and sank her to her ankles. She reached for her Yarrow Wand again, shaking it out of the summoned tree branch and turning the tip red with the idea of fire before setting the earth around her in a blaze. The mud turned hard around her legs and she shattered it with the but end of her wand, climbing out and continuing on.

She remembered more and more the further she ran, like she was traveling into her memories from so long ago. She remembered deciding on the first day what sort of rabbit she was going to be. She hid well, but never well enough. She hadn't won the most trials out of all the other rabbit contestants, her victory icons numbered a mere four. She knew she wasn't fay like most of the others, and that the Black Rabbit running was bred from a fairy bed for this day.

How had she won?

'You're a desperate thing, something we don't know how to be until we meet your kind,' Mito cooed into Sakura hair, brushing it with her fingers. 'We'll learn desperation from you.'

Sakura felt sick in her belly at the memory of her Fairy Queen from so long ago. It made her knees shake as she stopped to strangle the memory and banish it from her mind. Mito laughed louder and louder and it was enough to made Sakura's heart hammer. Her skin was glowing and perfect in the immortal form of a White Rabbit, but it still shook from the memories of a moral human girl.

Mito's hands had been in Sakura's chest and-

She couldn't breath.

Mito's laughter was the sound of metal ringing dull in sunlight. A mighty woman more awesome and beautiful than all before her. Sakura had to turn her head to look away, but there were dead bodies all around them, and they were all staring back at her. Sakura knew their names.

Mito's hands were in Sakura's chest and they dug deeper and deeper-

Itachi tackled her to the ground, hands at her wrists, pinning them to the baked mud below her. His fangs were bared but Sakura couldn't see them. She was barely breathing, gasping shallow breaths and shaking as her eyes stared out, beyond his bird like face.

Itachi hesitated, feeling her skin grow cold under his hold and growled in recognition. His hands moved to her face and reached for her mask, but it was a part of her and he couldn't peel it back now, only rub circles into her neck and the bottom half of her cheeks where tears were leaking from. He pulled himself up and over her, looming higher until he was all she could see. Still her eyes were wide and wild from seeing something else.

Hands dug deeper, wet and roaming. Sakura's chest was open and too many pieces were missing.

"Look at me," Itachi growled, hands on her neck, keeping her straight. She stuttered on a wet breath and he pressed the top of his head against hers. Their eyes were level. "Look only at me. Don't see anything else. Only me, look at me, Sakura," he growled.

"Please," Sakura stuttered, words wet and wobbling. She was seeing him now. "I don't want to remember anything more. Her eyes were glittering red and leaking even more tears. "I don't want to see any more of it. Please, don't make me remember."

Her hands found the front of his shirt and tugged on the fabric. He let her. She was so small under him, she seemed to be shrinking. The girl of fire and smoke who ran like the devil was breaking apart under him and all he could do was watch.

Itachi swallowed, moving of to the side and bringing her with him. He sat back on one leg and pulled her onto it, supporting her body as it naturally curled into his. He leaned his face down to rest atop the crown of her head, avoiding the points of her rabbit mask ears. He pulled her closer and draped his cloak over them. Unable to help himself he rubbed circles into her arm and kissed her hair.

He didn't have words for her. Sarutobi was supposed to be the one who dealt with this sort of thing. The old man was good with traumatized men and women. He could talk them through it. Itachi was more often the trigger, never the comforter, especially not for White Rabbits. Wasn't she supposed to be terrified of him?

"Shhhh," he whispered into her curls, struggling to find words. "Shhh, that's a heart, shhh, there you are. Yes, there you are." He shifted his other arm so his hand was in her curls, fingers brushing through. "You're safe now. I'll not let anyone touch you now. You're safe with me. You're safe now."

Her sobs ebbed into whimpers and the hick-ups and then nothing. Still, he held her until she wanted to be let go. When she didn't tug or pull away he held her closer. She made a sound of contentment and it caused something to pinch deep inside him.

Oh.

"I can't do it."

Itachi blinked at the sound of her voice as Sakura closed her eyes and balled her fists in her lap. She bit her lip and he heard her whisper a curse. He combed through her curls and rubbed her scalp around her mask.

It was a moment before he found words to answer her with. "You can do what you believe you can do. What is it?"

Sakura swallowed, refusing to look up. "I was so stupid. I thought I could…I could take Sai's place and act as his replacement. I thought I could do this again…like I did it all once before. I didn't-I-it's so much worse remembering it. Why the hell did I have to remember? Why the hell did I choose that?"

"You didn't choose anything."

Sakura shook her head at his words and his fingers fell through her curls. "No, I did, I chose it." She touched the inked wishbone through her white dress. "They gave us a choice. I never wanted to forget or have my memories taken o-or altered."

A wishbone for memories. Sakura heard the words clearly in her mind and saw just as clearly the room full of potential White Rabbits; most fay, some human.

"The other kids, most of them chose to hide their memories at the end of it. That was the choice."

Itachi's eyes narrowed in understanding. It was a fay trick, a test of sorts that many courts used to find the right Rabbit candidate. "It wasn't truly a choice. What happened to those who chose the easy comfort of forgetting?"

"They left the game. They were disqualified as rabbits."

"And they lived happily ever after? No such thing with fairy games. There was nothing you could have done, but that's behind you now." His words felt hollow and he swallowed, reaching for something else to say. "I've pushed you too much for one day."

Sakura hummed and silence stretched between them until she spoke up. "Sorry. I hadn't meant to-I haven't had a panic attack like that in years. I didn't mean to fall apart like that."

"You're human."

Sakura chuckled dryly, glancing down at the glow of her skin. "Maybe not quite."

Itachi gestured for her to stand and she turned off his knee, staggering to her feet on her own. "You've more than exhausted yourself. We should see you return to your human self."

"I think I can do that," Sakura admitted, taking a step back. Her hands were empty, the yarrow wand returning to a mark on her chest.

Itachi stood, following her. "The recoil shouldn't cause as much of a shock. I hadn't expected you to use so much energy in your escape."

"Did your White Rabbits not fight back?" Sakura asked in a forced airy voice.

He couldn't help but grin. "Never so beautifully."

Sakura felt her cheeks burn and reached up to rub them with the heels of her hands, glancing down until the tingling faded. Itachi failed to notice as he stood in front of her and crossed his arms.

"I will be ending the illusion now. Once we're back in the courtyard you'll drop the form and return to normal. If Sarutobi needs to, he is standing by with the tonic that will put you to sleep."

At the mention of sleep Sakura felt her jaw beg for a yawn. "I could use a good nap."

"Are you ready?"

Sakura licked her lips, hesitating. Itachi stood across from her, waiting expectantly. The dark marking on his face were still present, but the sharper angles that made him seem birdlike had softened or lessened. He was different and a part of her wanted to keep watching until she found all the places where he changed.

"I'm ready," she answered, averting her eyes.

Itachi crossed to stand directly in front of her and lifted her face with two fingers under her chin. His eyes were glowing like rubies trapped in the light and they were spinning.

Sakura fell from his world and the darkness between There and Here wasn't nearly as expansive as it had been the first time. When she landed this time her feet touched down on stone like feathers and her hair fluttered behind her just as light. Itachi appeared a moment later, but the raven cloak was gone along with the markings and he was as human looking as she remembered him being.

"Your turn," he evenly stated, nodding to her.

Sakura held her breath and felt the magic in her break apart and seep back like water in a basin with a drain. It came so much easier this time and Sakura had control of it all the way through. Her mask broke up and her dress began to glow too bright to look at. The change felt gradual this time, but in a eye's blink she was back and staggering in her jeans and sneakers.

Sarutobi caught her by the elbow and she chuckled at the help. He lifted the ready vial. "Do you think you'll need this?" he teased, eyes twinkling with the knowledge that she wouldn't.

Her laughter was answer enough.

Sakura awoke later that night and stumbled into the bathroom, feeling like she was going to vomit. Instead, she gripped the edge of the porcelain sink and braced herself, staring into the mirror.

"She will never touch you again," Sakura hissed at her reflection. "Never again. You will never be so powerless."

Her reflection stared back at her and Sakura waited before repeating the mantra again, believing it a little bit more. She remembered running in a white dress for the first time and she repeated the mantra a third time.

"You will never be so powerless."

She remembered looking at her friends at the beginning of the trials and then carrying their bodies off the field, or what was left of their bodies.

"You will never be so powerless again," Sakura hissed, staggering.

She remembered the burning of each brand, and then the last mark that made her a White Rabbit. All others had been performed by an artisan fay, but this last honor was always reserved for the High King of Queen of the court.

Sakura's knuckles were white and close to bursting through her skin as she whispered the words one more time.

They were taken under the mountain. She remembered her High Queen smiling down and then-

The memory came like the bursting of a helium balloon and she fell to her knees, retching into the nearby toilet as a laughter that sounded like ringing metal echoed all around her.

Chapter

V

There were twelve days in the Witch's Sabbath and Sarutobi didn't expect anything of consequence to transpire until the seventh. Their power builds throughout the week, but it is only worth noting after six days. Before that they are hardly harmless. From day seven and on there would be need for caution.

"Do you think you're up for the task?" Sarutobi asked Sakura the day after her training with Itachi. Itachi had respected her privacy enough to not mention her panic attack to the older wizard. Still, she could tell he suspected something wasn't quite right. He didn't believe in her false confidence.

"I…might be." Sakura chose her words carefully, glancing sideways at the the nearly mute boy who hung close to Sarutobi with void like eyes and a plastic smile. Sai kept himself busy in the corner reading books and drawing in a sketch pad.

'You think he knows about the retching and the mirror?' a voice inside of Sakura's head snickered.

"I mean-" Sakura sat up a little straighter and licked her lips, trying to find better words. "I don't know what to expect. I think I should be fine."

Sarutobi's smile was as kind as gingerbread as he nodded. The pair of them sat on a covered bench in one of his larger libraries left open to guests. There were no magic books, but there were still plenty of tapestries with secret stories to stare up at. The bench they sat on was close to the windows and far from the door where Sai sat, reading.

"Tonight is the safest night. Konohamaru is even having his friends stay over. I'm sure we'll do exceedingly well."

Sakura felt a worm of unrest in her gut. "He's having his friends over, as in…more kids? You sure that's a safe idea?"

Sarutobi smiled sadly, looking down at his hands. "I've been quite unfair to my grandson. I'd like to protect what I can of his childhood. I was worried about his ability to make friends."

"Itachi mentioned earlier that he and your son…Asuma?" Sarutobi nodded and she knew she got the name right. "Yeah, Konohamaru and Asuma leave for the fall and winter months. Is there a reason Konohamaru is staying here now?"

"Asuma has found himself sufficiently occupied before taking on his nephew, so I offered to watch Konohamaru while he settles in with a new friend."

Sakura blinked, feeling like she stepped through a hole somewhere. "Wait, Asuma isn't Konohamaru's dad. But I thought…wait…"

"Asuma is my eldest son, but I had two. Konohamaru's mother and father passed away several years back. It's been the three of us ever since."

Sarutobi readjusted himself in his seat before reaching with the can he held between his knees to push open a window. Crisp air made the room a little more awake feeling. Sakura pulled up her hoodie's front, making the opening tighter by pulling on the drawstrings.

"I'm sorry to hear that." It was the most automatic thing she ever said and Sakura hated how little her heart lurched for the man. She didn't want to ask how they died, already suspecting it had something to do with the family's relationship with the unseen world.

Sarutobi let his can rest on the window sill as he stared out over the hills behind his manor, thin with only the memory of fog. Most of it had dissipated by ten and it was already noon.

"We all have demons to wrestle with. There's no shame in bringing that fight out into the light and accepting help."

"Why do I feel like this is the first step in a therapy session?"

"Itachi mentioned little of your adventure, respectfully so, but he did mention you have victory icons."

"Mortals couldn't hope to compete in the games without some," Sakura murmured, hands itching to hold something. In her pocket the paper she had sketched her icons out on wrinkled further as she crossed her legs on the bench.

"Yes, I suspected as much. It's been so long since I've met a human with more than one. I wish I could have seen it." His voice is old and Sakura suspects she imagines the note of longing.

Her hand itching, Sakura raises her left palm up and when her fingers curl there is a yarrow branch in her hand, blooming tiny yellow buds. Slowly, the buds being to open and Sakura shakes the stick as soon as the flowers are in full bloom. There is a polished wood wand as long as her forearm in its place. She heard Sarutobi inhale behind her.

Sakura smiles at the comforting weight. "I can do this much without transforming, but I guess you're going to tell me it's more harmful on my body this way, right?" She swings it once and tiny lights appear at the tip, populating like bubbles.

"You're no wizard, so that would be true." Still, his voice is far from patronizing. He's not telling her to put it away, instead he leans forward, dragging his can off the window sill. "What did they teach you?"

"Nothing complicated. I can do stuff with nature and the elements, make clouds, bubbles, fire, water, light, smoke, combustion reactions, uhhh…" she tried to remember what else she could use her wand for. "Lightning and storms and other things. The complicated stuff like manipulating memories or objects, transfiguration and the advanced spells were never touched upon. I tried fixing a lamp once, but I made it catch on fire."

"That sounds like something Konohamaru would have done before his powers were sealed." He stood, leaning on his cane for support. "Come on Sai, we're moving to the courtyard."

Sai closed his book and followed wordlessly, perfect in his obedience. Sakura heard scurries further down the hall, btu Sarutobi led them down the stairs and out to the back courtyard were Sakura had been yesterday when Itachi spirited her away to his own made world. Itachi wasn't here anymore. He was at Danzo's manor across the moor and wouldn't be back for twelve days.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked, stopping at the edge of the courtyard. Sai was a few steps off to her left, neither ahead nor behind her. Far in the background she heard scurrying and guessed it was Konohamaru and his friends.

"Magic." His smile was childlike. He seemed so much younger when he grinned.

"I thought you said I shouldn't do that unless I'm transformed."

Sarutobi waved his cane and it melted away into something shorter and made of metal. Iron to bind magic with authority. "There is no one here who will stop you from doing so. What? You thought yesterday would be the only day for practice? I'll promise not to be so frightening."

Sai moved from alongside her and Sakura felt his gaze settle on her with a new sort of weight. Sakura stared back at the younger boy awkwardly. "What?"

He didn't reply right away, and when he did it was to produce his own wand of iron. Sakura bit her lip, realizing two things at once. First, Sai wasn't as empty as she once feared him to be, and second, he was more than just a child spirited away by fay; Sai was a wizard.

"Fine," Sakura begrudgingly conceded, feeling funny about the idea of not trying her best in front of Sai.

She raised her hands high above her head and felt the magic run down from her fingertips. Her body snapped and in a blaze of light she was glowing with white hair, curled and full, and eyes red behind a rabbit mask.

Sai was still watching her and she felt her cheeks burn at the weight of his gaze. He looked more like a child than ever, but his eyes weren't empty anymore. Maybe it was worth it if he showed he could react a little.

"Now what, old man?" Sakura huffed in a playful tone.

She summoned her yarrow branch and pumping it full of magic to make the buds bloom. A second shake and the polished wand of wood rested in her hand. Her magic came from the fay, she needed an earth element to control it. Sai and Sarutobi were wizards, or had wizard blood, they needed iron to control it.

"Well, for now, how about we just play?"

Sarutobi's grin was equally playful before a burst of white bloomed at the tip of his wand. White fell down all around them and Sakura screamed when it fell onto her arms from the too low clouds overhead. It was snowing. Her distraction cost her as another burst of snow from his wand hit her in the back. Sakura staggered and turned to see Sarutobi spinning his wand around a ball in the snow. He winked playfully before it followed his wand's tip and flew straight for Sai.

By the time Konohamaru and his friends found them Sakura was buried in snow, laid out on her back staring up into the artificial clouds that lazily spared drifting snowflakes for their courtyard.

"That's the one you're shipping with Itachi?" a tiny girl voice squeaked from not too far off.

Sakura didn't stir, waiting to hear if Sarutobi would get off his bench and shoo the kids away. Sai was over by the fountain, creating animals out of ice.

"Don't make a face, she's cooler when she's not so scary looking." That had been Konohamaru.

"I like the mask." A new, boy's voice. "My dad said his grandfather once borrowed magic from a White Rabbit."

Sakura closed her eyes, relaxing a bit more. It sounded like the kids were immersed in the same world as Konohamaru and Sarutobi. No wonder the old man let them come over. They also seemed to know about Itachi.

"Itachi's too pretty for her."

"Hey! You're supposed to be my girlfriend."

"Yeah, but that's only until we get older and it's not weird to date adults. Sorry Koco, but Itachi's tall."

"I'll be tall too!" Konohamaru whined. "And Itachi's already-mph, ow!"

"Don't fight you guys, please…"

Sakura let her arms rise up in the snow and she felt the drifts pile up around where she lowered her arms again. Up and down, she made angel wings in the snow. It was strange how even though it was cold and she was wearing so little, the snow didn't bother her. She could sleep in it and not mind. The magic in her veins was thick like honey and kept her warm.

The clouds above her broke apart violently and the snow under her hisses in rapid melting as Sarutobi jumped up and Sai followed, standing at attention. Sakura felt groggy, but the nerves down her spin made her follow their actions and stand at attention too. Apples had been in her mouth all day long, but now the taste was turning from sour to sweet. Was someone trying to use magic to harm her?

"Sarutobi?" she growled, hands empty from releasing the Yarrow wand after their snowball fight.

The old man's voice was as straight and hard as his spine. He stood with perfect form, wand at the ready. "Someone is inside the grounds. Sai, take the children inside and into the iron room."

Sai moved to do just that as Sakura summoned her branch and poured magic into it. She turned slightly, red eyes roving before the blossoms were full and another shake turned the branch into a wand.

Sarutobi muttered under his breath and a silver mist seeped from his wand's tip, spreading like fog out into the house, searching for the intruder.

Sakura noticed a murder of crows scattering overhead in agitation, left behind by Itachi and created by Sarutobi's magic. The house was guarded by these birds like sentries and they were agitated. One of them split away and touched down on the edge of the still frozen fountain and tapped the water with his beak.

Sakura charged the tip of her wand with heat and pressed it to the ice, making it crack and splinter. Her wand melted more of the ice and the crow squawked happily before reaching forward for some water. She watched it blankly while straining her other senses for sign of an intruder. She had a hard time hearing anything odd or unusual.

"Sakura." She turned to see Sarutobi's fog thick at her feet and curling upwards. "Get away from there!"

Before she could understand that she needed to move the fog was blown away in a gust and from behind her legs and arms reached down. Sakura felt herself picked up and struggled at the sound of Shisui's giggle. The feathers from his crow form were still falling away as he pulled her onto his lap, perched on the edge of the tallest point of the fountain.

"Shisui!" Sarutobi shouted. "You have no right here. Go, I have warded this place against you."

Sakura twisted as much as she could and pushed against his chest. Shisui pouted, coy and teasing, but didn't let her go. His eyes found Sarutobi and his pout turned into something a little more sinister. "No, old man, you didn't. You warded your house against kidnappers and child stealers. I've already sworn to you that's not my aim, so your wards have no power over me…anything else is too weak to hope to bind me. But go ahead, hide your children, that's not what I'm here for."

"He already told you that I'm not something he'll give to you," Sakura hissed, feeling her hands shake as they press against his chest. Her nails were claws and her teeth were petite fangs. Her veins were thick with honey magic.

Shisui laughed and it sounded like a child before he pulled her to him and lifted her over his head, resting his head against her stomach. "Silly Rabbit, I'm not so impatient to ask the same thing twice." He kissed her navel through the fabric of her dress. "I'm here to offer you my services."

Sakura reached out and felt her hand wrap around the handle of her Mistletoe sword, glittering with Ivory and Mother of Pearl decorations. She leveled the blade with his neck and he stiffened. "What makes you think I need your services?"

Shisui shivered against the blade and looked up, baring his neck even more. His eyes were wide, beautifully black, and darkling. "I don't think you need anything, not me, not the old man, not even my foolish cousin. But, wouldn't you rather have someone else fight your battles for you?"

"Not for free, you wouldn't." Sakura pressed her blade closer to his skin and it prickled, honey smelling red-gold blood bubbled along her blade. He gasped at the feel of it. "I'm not stupid enough to put myself in debt to you."

"That a mistletoe blade by any chance?"

"You want to find out?" Sakura almost cooed, angling the blade so more of his immortal fay blood ran down the length of it. She knew he could feel it.

"I'm not here to hurt you, sweetheart. I just wanna help."

"I'm sure," she said, sounding doubtful.

He let go of her wrist and loosened his hold around her waist. She kicked off, striking the center of his chest with the ball of her foot. Turning over in mid air, she landed like a cat and adjusted her rabbit mask. Shisui watched her move closer to Sarutobi as he ran a thumb over his cut. His thumb was wet with his honeyed blood when he brought it to his mouth to suck clean, eyes fixated on her as the digit slipped between his lips.

"You alright?" Sarutobi asked, glancing at her once.

Sakura snorted. "Creepy guys hitting on me isn't the end of my world. I think I'll live through this."

"I wasn't hitting anyone. I was being completely civil," Shisui interrupted, flushing slightly at the misunderstanding. It almost made Sakura snort again, but she schooled her features into another mask of indifference.

Shisui pulled his hand away and stretched his neck, but the cut was already healed and shimmering in white. He felt for the bump and frowned. Mistletoe would take longer to heal completely. He played at looking around comically and made a face when he couldn't find whatever it was he was looking for.

"Itachi's not here, otherwise he would have tried to take my head off by now. You're without your best man on the first night of the Witch's Sabbath?" Shisui asked, addressing Sarutobi.

"You're worried about it?" Sarutobi mocked.

"You're not?" Shisui's tone was short as he stood up on the edge of the fountain. "You remember last year, old man? The eleventh woman made a meal out of you. Those ladies are no joke, even to Fay. What are you going to do without a fay guardian?"

"You're not Itachi's equal."

Shisui was a flash before stepping in front of Sarutobi, standing tall and looming. "Nor is he mine," he voiced.

"What danger is a wolf when you already have a fox in the henhouse?" Sakura interrupted, bouncing her sword in hand and staring hard at Shisui. "Your ability isn't in question here, but your motives."

Shisui steps back from Sarutobi and turns to Sakura. Some of the harshness of his features fades before his eyes are wide with an idea. He snaps his fingers and bounces onto one foot. "You'll trust me if it's a trade."

"What?"

In a blink Shisui was behind her, then in front of her, grabbing her wrists and spinning her like they were kids under a Maypole. "You can trust me if it's a trade, a trade! Fay can't go back on their words."

"I don't want to give anything to you."

Sakura pulls her wrists apart and it sends the Uchiha off balance for only a stuttering moment before he is back in front of her, standing on both feet.

"I'd gladly give up years of hunting a child for your name, what makes you think I would ask for anything you weren't willing to share with the old man or my cousin? It's not fair they get to spend so much time with you while I'm locked and warded from the grounds."

"No. Eventually you'll ask for something I'm not willing to share." Sakura sounded so confident, but in the back of her mind the other voice laughed and replayed the memory of her panic attack in Itachi's arms. The voice inside Sakura head laughed harder and taunted.

'You think you'll be fine without help?'

Sai and Sarutobi would help, but they weren't Itachi; both were human.

"Then you say no. I'll be as gone as sunlight. You won't hear a peep from me." He stepped backwards, rocking on his heel before leaning in again. "But you know enough to know what Fay want more than anything else."

Sakura rolled her eyes, turning her sword down so that she could cross her arms without stabbing herself. "Fun. More than anything you Fay want fun, to dance forever in rings, to throw endless parties, then always enjoy yourself. Yeah, that sounds harmless enough, but I also know more than just that when it comes to Fay natures. Who else thinks it's fun to burn children alive and make them dance in shoes of heated iron? Don't sound so innocent. Your definition of fun could be just as sick as anyone else's."

"A hunter maybe, but not a rabbit."

"You're still fay."

"Itachi's fay, but you keep him around. He even left you when it was most important for him to stay. He's so unreliable and yet you'd choose him over me, wouldn't you?"

"You forget what Itachi has done to prove himself to me," Sarutobi cut in.

Shisui slated his eyes sideways at the older man in irritation. It seemed as if he was upset his conversation had been interrupted by a third party. "So? He's not done anything for Sakura, nothing like that." He turned back to look at Sakura. "You don't have a reason to trust that guy any more than me."

Sakura unfolded her arms and waved her sword back in front of her. "What do you know of that? How would you know if Itachi's done anything for me or not?"

"Cause I know Itachi and he's a stiff," Shisui laughed.

"I still don't trust you."

Shisui huffed, hopping back onto one foot again. "You just need to be desperate enough. I'll be back, and when you need me I'll have an offer you can't refuse." He started to laugh but the sound faded out when he saw the expression on Sakura's face. She was stone still and stiff with eyes blow wide.

"Get out." Her voice was a growl and the hand that held her sword began to shake. Shisui didn't move and the shaking of her fist increased. Her teeth turned sharp as she bared them, red eyes bright with anger. "Get out now!"

She swung and this time her blade sang with honey power. A golden beam cut the air and Shisui cursed before ducking under it, fast as a rabbit. Sakura swung again and he was gone, flashing away on steps she couldn't see. Sarutobi came up behind her and turned his wand into a cane again, whispering words of power before striking it against the ground. Swarms of blackbirds, crows, flew out cawing like mad.

"He won't be able to come right back in, we're safe for now. Sakura?"

Sarutobi came up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder as she heaved with the effort it took to breath. Sakura shuddered under the contact and threw away her sword. It turned into white berries in midair and then became nothing before it could hit the ground. She gasped and the breath came out ragged like a tearing bed sheet. Her mask broke up and the rest of her faded back to human.

"I'm not-I'm not powerless, never again."

"Sakura?"

She was sinking, sinking, deep and dark, sinking down, down, down. Under the mountain again, there was someone laughing.

'Not now,' the voice inside her head hissed, and Sakura felt a metal wave of cold water snap her out of the toxic spiral. She blinked, remembering where she was. There were crows overhead and Sarutobi had called her name a second time. He would be worried about the possible recoil, she could hide this near panic attack if she played her cards right.

'Never again.'

She closed her eyes, breathed deep, and then pushed herself off the ground, dusting off her hoodie. "I'm fine. Ugh, just annoyed. The recoil isn't that bad, but it was better last time. I'm going in to take a nap and then you can wake me at sundown. I'll stand guard with Sai tonight. It's the easiest night, right?"

Sarutobi hesitated, but lowered his hand at last and nodded in agreement. "As you wish. I'll be back in the study if you ever wish to speak with me. You can talk to me."

Sakura forced another smile and closed her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I'll see you later."

The air around them smelled like metal and something else Sakura didn't want to name. She swallowed and hated how inhaling meant she could taste the death that hung in the air all around them.

Her body hurt, and she wasn't sure she was still in one piece as she reached for her friend's hands. Karin was already by the wall, but Kin wasn't moving. Sakura would have to drag Kin the rest of the way. None of the girls were stronger than Sakura, not even the fay girls. Sakura would be able to do it, even as exhausted as she was. Fay were as light as leaves, and Kin was even lighter than most.

"Come on," Sakura gasped, digging in her heels and pulling at her friend's arms. Kin didn't move on her own, so Sakura pulled harder until the girl's body made a trail in the sand.

There was so much acid in the air, turning it humid. Sakura felt her toes burning and her lungs baking from the effort. The desert was killing her and it was only a matter of time before her body fell apart. But it wouldn't be instant. Sakura had time before her body gave out, she could make it to the wall. Her eyes burned but she could do it.

Sakura reached deep and found a well of untapped strength and dug into it. Kin bumped something and the dragging got easier. Sakura shut her eyes, feeling them burn from the acid and screamed as she ran backwards, dragging Kin towards the wall.

"Damnit-Sakura!"

Hands on her back stopped Sakura mid step and she teetered, sensing the wall behind her. Karin was there. Sakura cracked open her eyes and saw the ivory gates. She opened her eyes more and saw Karin's tear stained face. What was she crying for. Sakura made it. The three of them were going to make it. Karin's voice broke on a sob.

Sakura looked down at Kin and stared. Kin's beautiful face was still, her enchanting features were unmoving and her beautiful hair was a haloed mess around her head. Kin was always stunning. Sakura's eyes traveled down from Kin's face to her chest to the stub of her spine sticking out from the hole that opened up and separated the bottom half of her body halfway through the desert during her drag. Her intestines trailed out like sausage links, wet and glistening. Kin's legs were gone. The bottom half of her body was gone. Half of Kin was gone.

Karin continued to sob, but Sakura could only stare.

'Where did she go?'

Sakura's eyes snapped open and she looked up to see Sai in the kitchen making dinner. Night was soon coming and the family was eating all on their own. Sai had offered to make dinner for her and Sakura since they would be staying up. He made eggs and sausage for her and never noticed how her mind wandered.

"Is something the matter with your food?" Sai asked when he turned and saw she hadn't touched anything.

Sakura blinked. She stared down at the sausage links and then lifted her fork. She pierced one and lifted it to her mouth to bite and chew. She finished off the first sausage without a sound. When she noticed Sai still watching her she forced a smile.

"It tastes amazing. Thanks."

Sai watched her a moment, eyes voice and deeply fixated on her smile. A second later his smile mirrored hers. Identical fake smiles.

"I am glad to hear that." He turned back to the stove. "We have one hour until the horned woman arrives."

Sakura glanced at the clock. "It's elven. Midnight is the witching hour, isn't it?"

"Technically the Horned Women are not witches. The Ladies of the Woods are not witches either. They are beings that do not meet the qualification of a witch's definition. They are not human."

"You sound like a textbook," Sakura snorted.

"There are many useful texts and guides I utilize for such reasons. I will share with you their titles if you wish to also know more about these things."

"You haven't told me anything I don't know already, kid."

Sai paused in the scrambling of his eggs. "I am a kid?"

Sakura shrugged. "You're almost nine years younger than me. You're a kid to me."

Sai glanced back over his shoulder and watched her with something less than his void empty eyes. "You are not so young."

It took a moment for her to understand, but when she did it was enough to break her into a real smile. Sakura nodded at Sai. "Yeah, I'm much older than this. I was eight when they took me, and after ten or so years, I was put back into that same eight year old body and forced to grow up again. Time was not my friend. I don't know how old that makes me, but I'm not ancient."

"I aged when they took me."

It was the most human sound Sakura ever heard out of Sai and she wanted to capture it in a box and hold onto it forever and ever. Her heart swelled a bit at the sound of his confession. She hadn't asked, but he had shared with her.

"If you aged then they didn't take you to a court, they just took you to the Fay Lands. Only a king or queen has the authority to remove time's power over a mortal." Sakura poked at her food. "Did your books tell you that?"

"Yes."

"You know a lot then?"

"I do."

"Do you think you know more than me?"

Sai moved his scrambled eggs from the pan onto his plate and added the sausage links. "I may possess a vast knowledge obtained from study and application, but I will not say I know more than anyone else. I know much. That is all."

"Why?"

Sai looked up from his food, expression blank. "Explain."

"Why do you know so much. Don't answer how, I already know how. I want to know your motivations. I want to know why." Sakura put down her fork and leaned forward, across the table. "You've been through hell and you're still there. Why would you still stay so close to such an ugly world? Why would you try to learn so much about it? Why?"

"Because Danzo requires it. I have no one. I rely on Danzo and I assist Danzo with my efforts. Do you not do the same for Sarutobi?"

Sakura snorted and her face was a mess of offended expression. "Hell no. I never intended to work for the guy like this. When I took this job I thought it was only going to be his books I balance. I'm good with numbers, a habit I picked up from the fay I guess. But after I came back, I tried my best to forget and move on and never have anything more to do with the fay. I was…tricked."

"Sarutobi is a well known wizard. There are not many who do not know of his reputation."

Sakura shook her head and wiped away the expression on her face, least it stick. "Yeah, well I didn't know jack shit about the guy. If I knew he was a wizard looking for people like me I would have taken a job elsewhere. I didn't want to come back to any of this."

"Then why did you stay?"

The voice in her head sniggers. 'Why did you go back for Kin, why is Karin still alive?'

"Because it was the right thing to do."

Sai watches her and for a moment Sakura wonders if he will ask her something more, but the glimmer of light she thought she saw in his lifeless eyes dims and he is back to fake smiles and vacant expression. "Of course," he offers, looking away as he sits down to eat.

Sakura finishes first but waits to leave the table until Sai is done. She washes both their dishes. There are still suds on her hands when the clock begins to chime for midnight.

Sai rises from the table, bringing his wand with him. Sakura dries her hands before following him into the main hall. He stands still, unnaturally so, and waits. Sakura doesn't summon her yarrow wand, but instead takes up a seat in the hall and crosses her arms over her chest.

The clock quits its chiming and there is silence. Sakura hates how it stretches. Time is an elastic band, pulled taunt in silence. Disruption will be violent.

Sakura hears it before Sai does, but he tenses on his own before Sakura can alert him. Outside a torchlight crosses the marsh. It could have been a will o the wisp, swamp gas making it's own light, but Sakura knows it is not by the way it travels. The light draws near and then it is gone from the windows, but not far.

There is a knock at the door.

"Who is there?" Sai asks, speaking first.

"I am the woman of one horn. Open, open."

"No."

Sakura sat in silence as the woman knocked again, hand heavier on the wood. "Open, open!"

"No."

There was a horrible hissing sound followed by angry words. "Open, feet water, open wood and tree and beam. Open, blood of babes, open, open."

Sakura felt a soft ripple of magic and relaxed. There was nothing to this woman. Sarutobi was right. The first night would be a piece of cake.

Sai denied the horned woman once more and there was shrieking like never before as a fire flared and the woman spirited off into the night. And just like that the first night's dangers were avoided.

Sai nodded, seemingly content with his performance. Still, he kept his wand out as he turned to Sakura. "She is gone to torment the other homes, but they will not be able to hear her."

And that's how it was for the second night and the third night, each with a progressively stronger horned woman coming to the door with her weaker sisters trailing behind. Sakura mentally estimated the strength of the twelfth witch with the rate change of the first three witches and decided that she really didn't have anything to fear. Shisui was making a big deal out of nothing.

After the fourth night Sakura thought she would never have to worry if the women kept coming the way they did.

Sai seemed to deflate after the woman with four horns ran away screaming.

"That's it?" Sakura asked from the chair in the hallway. She always sat in the same one and never drew her wand. She looked relaxed but it was all just boredom. Sarutobi trained and worked with her in the mornings and so her guard duty at midnight was dull in comparison.

"That is all," Sai answered.

Sakura leaned her head on her hand and snorted. "Cool, I guess that's it then."

Sai dismissed his wand and turned partly to the side, regarding her anew. "What will you do now?"

Sakura rolled her shoulders before standing. "I'm going to get a drink and then go to bed. I'll see you in the morning." She began to walk away but stopped when she heard Sai following her.

"I also want a drink," he explained when she shot him a look.

"Kid…ugh. I'm not getting a water, you know. I'm gonna raid the booze cellar for a nightcap to help me sleep. Don't follow, you're underage and I don't think Sarutobi would be all that pleased to hear about his precious spirits going missing."

"I've had fairy wine. I doubt Sarutobi's collection is much worse."

Sakura frowned, pointing to the stairs where his guest room had been set up. "Doesn't matter, you're not in fairy land anymore. You're a minor here, and that means no drinking. Go to bed."

"You can not give me orders."

"I'm not-wh, you little punk." Sakura was flustered, not understanding where this was coming from. "I'm not giving you orders, I'm just telling you what you can't do because it's illegal, it's the law, not my law, THE law."

"I am not bound by such things."

"What the hell, kid?"

Sai brushed past her, heading where he knew the booze would be. Sakura wanted to stop him for no reason other than his newly developed attitude, but a part of her didn't care enough to actually do anything. 'He's not my kid, not my problem.'

Sakura grumbled, heading out on her own to the section of the manor that led down to the cellars. Sarutobi had a neat collection that ranged beyond just wines. Sections of the cellar were dedicated to bourbons, vodka, ales, and even beer. Most of the room was meant for wine

Sai was already ahead of her and before she could stop him he was pulling the cork out of something that popped and frothed up out of the tip and over his hand. Sakura groaned at the mess it made on the cobblestone floor and turned around to pull napkins out of the cabinet in the stairwell. Sai ignored the mess and had already filled a pair of flutes with glittering champagne.

"You couldn't have gone for something cheaper, like maybe the hard cider?"

Sakura grumbled, taking the glass he held out to her. She wasn't going to waste what he already poured. It wasn't her favorite, but she did enjoy a good bubbly drink every now and then. And what kind of kid goes for Champagne in a cellar full of booze?

'The kind that's used to drinking fairy wine.'

"You do not like the selection?"

"No, it's fine, but it's not right for the occasion. Champaign is for victories, celebrations, and romantic evenings. You drink it on New Years, at weddings, and at parties where you want your guests to know you're made out of money."

Still, Sakura lifted the flute to her lips and drank.

Sai watches her. "We were victorious tonight."

"Hardly." Sakura almost laughed when she lowered her glass from her lips and licked away the excess collecting on the rim. "Victory implies effort. We did nothing worth celebrating."

"Each night is a victory or a loss. Tonight we won." Sai empties his flute and pours for himself another, aware of how Sakura watches in disapproval. He turns and holds out the bottle to her. "You should drink to our future victories, and past ones."

"I'll drink to sleep." Sakura downs another glass and accepts his bottle to pour for herself more. He watches as she drinks, eyes heavy and unfocused on anything but memories.

"How much do you remember?" he asks after a moment.

She holds the rim of her flute underneath her lips before lifting it enough to sip. "Too much. And it's been more since coming here and dipping into these powers." She lowered her glass. "What about you?"

"I remember all of it and never forgot a moment. That was the whole reason of my taking." He speaks as if is the most obvious thing. "I've spoken with several of the changlings who come to see Sarutobi, but I've never been impressed with any of their journeys."

Sakura felt like she suddenly understood a bit more of Sai. "Were the others too boring for you?"

"Yes. They were not worth listening to."

His words are blunt and she knows he doesn't mean for them to be rude. Sai doesn't mean for a lot of things, he's all void and abyss on the inside. Sakura hopes that changes a little.

Instead of speaking she grabs the bottle back from where it sat on the counter and filled her flute. "This is the wrong drink for stories," she says.

But still, she pours and sits back before beginning with the least harmful of her memories. She speaks of the splendor of the inner queendom where the High Queen ruled. The Fay court Sakura had wandered into was a matriarchy and it was more beautiful than anything Sakura had ever seen. The more Sakura described, the lighter she felt.

Not all her memories were waiting to break her.

"All the constellations in the sky had different stories."

"Tell these to me. I do not know them."

Sakura does.

It's nearly morning when she finishes the stories. When she looks up, Sai is asleep against the wall. She puts what is left of their drink away, washes the glass flutes, and carries Sai to bed. He's light as a child in her arms and she worries he'll dream of nightmares, but his face is smooth in peace.

When she dreams there are terrors, but for once they stay bound and leashed enough to pretend they aren't even there.

Chapter

VI

Sakura slept through breakfast but came down for lunch. She came down to make herself a grilled cheese sandwich and found Sai and Konohamaru already in the kitchen, preparing their own meals with stiff shoulders and sullen expressions. Well, Sai's face was mostly blank, but he looked more sullen than normal with the barest of a downturn to his lips and a wrinkle between his brows.

Before, Konohamaru and Sai had barely acknowledged the existence of the other, for better or worse. As Sakura watched the pair of them make food it was obvious they were both very aware of each other.

"There a reason like you both ran out of toilet paper on the pot?" Sakura asked, snug in her oversized sweater and jeans. Her socks were mismatched but she didn't care.

Sai perked up, but it was Konohamaru that actually jumped down from his stool and ran to greet her. "Boss, you're awake. You've been sleeping all morning. What happened? Sai's not telling me anything but I know something happened."

"Yeah, don't worry, the horned woman weren't that bad. We stayed up telling stories and Sai's just trying to make you jealous. Did it work?"

Kon looked up, expression sour as he tugged Sakura down to his height. He pull on her sweater until her face was close to his and he could reach her ear without straining. "I don't like him. When is Itachi coming back?"

"Soon, just a few more nights and you'll see him again." Sakura straightened and then went to the bread box to take some bread for herself. She nodded to Sai. "Good morning, any news from Sarutobi? He mentioned something about tutoring today?"

Every day since the horned women's visits Sarutobi had taken some time to tutor the both of them in specialized wand magic. Sai took to it faster than Sakura, but once she had something down her spells came out better.

Sakura was also hoping Sarutobi didn't notice the missing of an expensive bottle in his cellar.

"Danzo called him. They are discussing plans for the twelfth night."

"Plans?" Sakura glanced sideways at the wizard's grandson, but Konohamaru just shrugged. "What plans."

"The twelfth night is supposed to be extra difficult so Danzo wanted to combine efforts at his estate and stand together. Sarutobi is discussing the details for this."

"That's a…" Sakura shifted the weight of her body from one leg to the other, trying to digest Sai's words. "That would be a lot of effort to protect each individual." It's one thing to ward a house with four or five bodies, but if you had over a dozen people in a place that's a dozen more ways a horned woman could get in. For every person Danzo takes in he would have to ward against."

"It is something Danzo and Sarutobi could do easily."

"Oh yeah?" Konohamaru frowned, crossing his arm. "Then why they never do it?"

Sai does not answer the boy, but keeps his attention on Sakura. "The two have not always been so agreeable with each other. But the other elders of their community would attend as well. It would be more than just our two houses."

Sakura glances down at the bread in her hands. There are two slices, but she wonders if she should take more. "Is Sarutobi really so worried?" She holds up the bread and nods towards Konohamaru, seeing his plate empty of food. "Do you want a grilled cheese, kid?"

The boy nods, hopping in place a little bit before reaching to grab the peanut butter and grape jelly from where he had assembled them on the counter. He replaces them in the fridge as Sai turns back to his own sandwich. Sakura doesn't know if Sai was interested in something different, but she felt bad for not offering. "Sai, I'll make you one as well if you are hungry after your sandwich."

Sai looked down at his sandwich and did not meet her eyes. "I already have food. I do not need more." He picked up his plate and hesitated before leaving. "Excuse me."

Sakura didn't think anything of it and let Sai go on his own before turning on the burners for the stove. There was a griddle in the lower drawers she used, coating thinly with butter. As the griddle warmed Sakura retrieved a bag of shredded cheese from the fridge, noting how the contents were less than usual. They would need to buy food soon.

Sakura made two grilled cheese sandwiches and cut both of them into quarter triangles. If Sai wanted some she could share more easily. Grapes in the fridge were washed and set into a bowl Sakura set down at the table to pick at while Konohamaru devoured his sandwich in messy bites. Sakura picked at hers slowly.

She straightened when she heard the footsteps and Sai slowed in his own eating, noticing the way she watched the hallway. Sarutobi came through it a minute later, newspaper tucked under his arm and a empty coffee mug in the other hand. He dropped the paper at the head of the table with a smile and stopped behind the chair.

"Sleeping beauty finally awakens," he teases with a knowing smile that makes Sakura gulp. "Did you have an exciting night."

Sai is the picture of calm, munching away at his sandwich while Sakura has to remember to force herself to smile and not forget to breath. Sarutobi was smiling and she could tell by the way he watched her, he knew. Somehow he knew. Oh God, and she was the adult. She was supposed to be the adult.

"Just fine," Sakura answered, picking up her grilled cheese and holding it close to her mouth like a shield. He wouldn't be able to see how fake her smile was. "How was your phone call? It sounded like you were talking a while with whoever."

Sarutobi's eyes twinkle as he leaves to wash his coffee mug out in the sink. "It was productive. I was able to speak with Itachi as well."

"Is he coming back soon?!" Konohamaru asks, jumping up.

Sai looks off to the left, expression still blank as Sarutobi comes over to ruffle his grandson's hair. "We'll actually be seeing him before he comes back. At the end of the week on the twelfth night we're going to Danzo's manor with several other families to celebrate. Ah, Sai and Sakura, you will be joining Itachi in his efforts to bolster the barrier. Between all our efforts I'm sure it will be no problem."

"If you say so," Sakura answers, looking down at her plate. The idea of eating is suddenly not as appealing as another wave a unease echoes throughout her. Only a fourth of her sandwich is gone.

"Is it going to be a party?" Konohamaru asks. He begins to bounce in his seat. "Like the Yule parties?"

"Yes, and you'll be allowed to attend this time."

"Yule parties?" Sakura echoes, remembering that Yule happened in December and it was only October. Yule was a big deal to people who interacted with the fairy world, however. Of course Sarutobi would celebrate it.

"You've not had the pleasure of enjoying a Sarutobi party, my dear. We give the fairy courts themselves something to rival. Many years ago it was said our family parties were the reason the fay came to make contact with us. Nonsense, of course, it was summoning and incantations that did the trick, but we were well know as having the best parties this side of the moor."

"Oh."

Any longer appetite drained away as she folded her hands under the table and held them tight. She could feel her knuckles turning white as the bones pressed up against skin. It was another memory, but it wasn't the kind that ended in blood, only shame. She remembered well the music and dresses and bubbling drink as lace and pearls dripped from all the hidden places her eyes could find. She had been young once, with the heart of a girl, with the heart of a child. Parties didn't scare her, but she hated how she still loved the idea of them.

'The other girls stepped through their hedges and mirrors for far better reasons. All you wanted was to be a princess.'

Sakura looked over at Sai's plate and saw his food was gone. She pushed her plate towards him and he looked up at her, eyes questioning.

"I'm not hungry anymore. Do you want any more of my grilled cheese?"

Konohamaru sat up and started to raise his hand, likely to offer to take it, but Sai moved away his plate and dragged hers in front of him. He finished one quarter piece before glancing up at Konohamaru. The younger boy was scowling. Above him, Sarutobi watched on with new interest.

"Sai, how are you doing apart from Danzo? I hope your stay has been comfortable," Sarutobi says, watching the young boy with eyes too keen to miss any detail.

"I am doing well, sir," Sai answered robotically.

Sarutobi nodded politely before turning to Sakura. "And you, my dear. How are you enjoying your stay? You haven't been out in a while."

In all honest Sakura had never been closer to a complete mental collapse since coming to this manor, but she wasn't going to just admit to something like that. She smiled and it wasn't as fake as Sai's, but it was still a lie on her face. "I'm getting used to it here. It's fine I guess."

Sarutobi didn't believe her, but he glanced between her and Sai, who was also watching her when she spoke. He must have seen something there that pleased him since he consented and left them to their devices.

"If you're feeling well enough for it, would you be willing to join us on a day trip to town. We've a few errands to run and would appreciate the company. It can get stuffy in this old house for so many weeks on end."

"There will not be more training today?" Sai asked, glancing between Sakura and Sarutobi, the two people he usually spent his days with while Konohamaru went to school. It was a Sunday, so the boy had off.

"Tomorrow we will resume."

Sakura glanced down at what she was wearing and frowned. She hadn't taken much with her when she moved from one place to the next. A lot of her things had been left with her mom and there was no way she was going back there for anything. It might be good to get out and shop. It was something she used to really enjoy with Ino.

"When would you leave?" she asked.

"As soon as you were ready."

Sakura stood and pushed in her chair. "I'll be ready in ten minutes. Let me just go change real quick."

Konohamaru looked at her funny. "You look fine. Ugh, do you need a new shirt or something, boss?"

Sakura just grinned, picking up the empty plates from in front of both boys and depositing them in the sink before leaving. In her room she changed out of her sweats and tshirt, missing the feel of their comfort already. She had never been a slob in Sarutobi's house, but since the exposure of his true intentions she had cared less and less how professional she looked when he checked in on her each morning. It was very different from how she was at her last job.

Sakura dragged a brush through her hair, making the curls soft all the way over her shoulders before slipping into a navy and white striped long sleeve shirt that complimented her figure nicely. Sakura smoothed her hands down the sides and nodded in appreciation of how it still flattered her figure. She was worried about rapidly losing weight after the first night transforming, but she was doing much better than last time.

Black, high waisted skinny jeans paired nicely with her ankle booties of the same color. She grabbed a black peacoat from the closet, and then hesitated. It wasn't cold enough for coats, but an extra cardigan would work just as well. Unfortunately, she didn't have a cardigan. Those were left at her mom's. Sakura choose an extra warm scarf instead and resolved to brave the early autumn chill.

Everyone local was waiting for the snap of seasons. It was unusually warm so late in the year. Sarutobi wore a sweater that reminded her of Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood and Sai had a light jacket.

"Sakura, cold an old man ask a favor?" Sarutobi held up the keys to his car. "Itachi usually drives us and my eyesight isn't what it used to be."

Sakura glanced sideways at the other two companions and realized, once again, she was the adult. Didn't they know she was too much of a mess to be responsible?

"Sure, as long as you tell me how to get there," Sakura answered, taking the car keys and checking her purse for her own ring of keys. It had been a while since she had to drive anywhere.

"Of course," Sarutobi chuckled, leading her into the detached garage out the side entrance Itachi had first meet her at.

Sai and Konohamaru followed close behind as Sarutobi held the side door open and flicked on the lights. Sakura took a few steps in and stopped.

"Damn old man."

"What was that, Sakura dear?"

Sakura faked another smile, this one too sweet to ever be convincing. "Nothing."

She hit the unlock button and a car towards the back beeped. It was closest to the garage door and would be the easiest to get out and park. Sakura didn't know a lot about cars, but she knew that most of the ones he had in his garage would cost more than her whole annual salary. Too many of them were elegant or sleek. Sakura looked over the one she would be driving and swallowed. It was an older model Bentley big enough for the four of them.

"You'll do fine," Sarutobi chuckled, patting her shoulder.

Sakura grumbled something about rich old white men but climbed into the driver's seat and adjusted it to her height and arm length. With Sarutobi in the passenger seat Sai and Konohamaru buckled up in the back as the garage door began rolling up.

The car handled like a dream and Sakura found herself missing the feel of it when the pulled into the outlet mall's parking lot. She parked the car where Sarutobi instructed her to and began to hand the keys to him when he chuckled and refused them.

"I'm not driving back. You should hang onto them."

"You want to know how nervous this makes me feel?" Sakura asked, dropping the keys into her purse.

"You want to know how little I care?" Sarutobi countered. "You saw my garage. You think I'll miss this?"

Sakura thought of her own car, sitting wherever Itachi parked it, unused and just as ugly as the day she bought it second hand from a friend of a friend. "You know when I was younger my family barely had enough to afford a station wagon. People like you made me jealous."

"And now?"

"Jealousy didn't do me any good," Sakura admitted, climbing out and locking the shut door behind her. "What did you need here, specifically?"

"Ah, well I am actually meeting Itachi here." Sakura felt her lips twitch downwards as she hurried to wrap her head around what Sarutobi failed to mention until just now. "He is escorting someone you might be interested in seeing. Here, for you."

Sakura took the small gray envelope and looked inside before raising both brows high. "All this?"

"It's for a dress. You don't have anything appropriate for Danzo's."

"I didn't think I would need one. I'm on duty, remember?"

"Only around midnight. You're allowed to have fun before that."

"And I?" Both Sakura and Sarutobi looked over to see Sai watching and following their conversation with veiled interest. "I am allowed to attend as well?"

"Of course," Sarutobi replied, sounding a bit perplexed. "It's your home. Of course you would be allowed to attend."

Sai simply nodded and returned his attention to the walkway ahead of them, leading to the outlets. Sakura missed how he slowed to keep pace alongside Sakura, but Sarutobi didn't.

"Are you gonna split up from us boss? No offense, but I don't want to go dress shopping," Konohamaru whined, scowling at most of the shop windows. "Also, girls take too long to try things on."

Sakura pushed open the glass doors before Konohamaru could walk into them, glaring when he stumbled after not looking where he was going. His smile was sheepish as she replied. "I guess I might, but I don't know. You'll have Itachi, though, so you won't be bored."

Inside the first thing they saw was a short row of restaurants and eateries. It was only an outlet mall so there was no actual food court, but the smell of food was in the air and plenty of people were sitting outside the shops on benches eating things like chicken, pizza, and sandwiches.

Itachi saw them before they saw him. He stood from the bench behind the potted plant and raised a single hand to wave down Sarutobi. Konohamaru cheered before skipping towards the Uchiha and Sai stayed beside Sakura as the group headed to the benches. Halfway there another figure stood and Sakura felt her stomach roll.

"What the hell," she breathed, feeling way too many things to name. It was an accusation more than a question.

Sarutobi's voice is hesitant and tentative as he stops alongside her. Sai is there too, but Konohamaru has already run up to Itachi. "I apologize for withholding this from you. It was…how we were able to find you initially."

"Sakura?" Sai calls her name, glancing between her and the new woman. He doesn't understand and Sakura can't find it in her to care enough to explain to him why she's the way she is.

She takes a step forward and the girl does as well. They meet somewhere in the middle and Sakura can't bring herself to take the last few steps, even when Ino smirked and fists her hands over her hips.

"What's with that face, didn't think you'd see me again so soon?"

"Ino, how do you know them?" Sakura asks, hating the fear that blooms like a rose in her heart.

Ino frowns. "You knew I was a…you know I'm a witch, why are you surprised?"

"Not that," Sakura said, pointing back over her shoulder at Sarutobi. "Them. You know them? You knew where I was going to work and you didn't tell me. You knew what they were going to ask of me?"

Ino's eyes widen with newly discovered worry and it's enough to make Sakura's chest feel light. Ino hadn't betrayed her. "Sakura, I would never! No, I didn't know it was the same place, and I had no idea they were looking for you. It-I'm sorry. No, please don't think that. I've never actually met Sarutobi before today. Only my dad knows him by reputation."

"Reputation?"

Ino's eyes grow wide. "Yeah, he's sort of like a legend of sorts. Everyone in the community knows about Sarutobi. No one has been able to come close to his skill. My dad looks up to him more than the president. I didn't even make the connection after you snap chat me all those photos. I'm sorry. I'm a horrible friend. I should have known better. Is that why you haven't texted? What happened?"

Sakura dropped her head onto her friend's shoulder and breathed in. Ino smelled good and her shoulder was the same shape and size Sakura remembered it being. It was the perfect place for Sakura to rest her head. "Don't ask. I don't want to think about it. You're here."

Ino pulled Sakura into a full hug, not caring if there were people watching. Sakura sagged a bit in her friend's embrace. When she closed her eyes she could pretend the mall wasn't there and the people had all left. Ino was safety.

"Sakura?" Ino asked after a moment, still holding her friend in a hug. "Should I be worried? What did they do?"

Sakura pulled away and rubbed her face, grateful there weren't tears. "Nothing. No, Sarutobi is actually trying to help me, but it was kinda sprung on me."

"That's what my dad said, but they're not making you do anything you don't want to, right?"

"Nothing I'm not comfortable with," Sakura admitted, rationalizing it out in her head. She didn't want to think about how much of that was the truth and how much of that was a lie just yet. She just didn't want to hurt anymore.

She didn't exactly want to do a lot of the things she was doing, but she understood that in order to heal and get better, it might require some difficulties. And while she never really sat down and formally agreed to put in the effort to heal with Sarutobi's help, she knew that it was mostly because she was still upset about being tricked and lied to.

"You heard about this party on Sunday?" Ino asked, taking a half step back and putting her hands back on her hips in her typical power pose. "I heard that's the reason I was so kindly summoned."

"No, I think it's just because I needed a friendly face."

"Don't diminish my importance. I'm too impressive for just that."

"You have a nice face," Sakura admitted with a shrug.

"I have a gorgeous face."

"Eh."

Sakura waved her hand as if she wasn't really convinced and Ino huffed, flicking Sakura's forehead in play. She looked like she was going to say something else nasty and teasing when she caught sight of the man behind Sakura's shoulder and shut up. Sakura turned to see Sarutobi there. Sai was standing between Itachi and Konohamaru looking as sullen as Sakura's ever seen him.

"Hello Ino. I don't believe we've met. Did you have any trouble finding the place?" Sarutobi asked, extending his hand.

Ino took it after a moment of hesitation and shook her head before replying. "I found it okay. Nice to meet you to, sir."

"I'm so glad to have met you. I know Sakura treasures you as a friend so I hope you two will enjoy yourself for the next couple of hours. Sakura, if you need me you may phone either I or Itachi. We will be together."

"Yeah, okay." Sakura turned around to face Sarutobi. "Two hours from now?"

Sarutobi hummed, stroking his chin. "If you need more time you may take it. You have the car keys. Itachi can drop us off along the way. It's been awhile since you had a break from work. You even worked on the finances yesterday, when it was Saturday and a day meant to be taken off."

Sakura feels Ino smack the back side of her shoulder and winces. "I'll send her back before dinner, I know she has an important job," the blond but in, a little less awed and star struck but the wizard's presence.

"That is agreeable." He winked at Sakura. "Have fun."

He turned back to his group and Konohamaru looked pleased enough to get moving, sliding up to Itachi right away going off about something that happened while Sai hesitated. Sakura saw him glance between her and Sarutobi's group before he took one step away from her, and then another.

Sakura didn't know why, but it was hard to watch Sai walk away. He looked so lost and unsure of himself. He didn't seem to know what he was doing or what he wanted to do.

"He's cute, for a high schooler. Robbing the cradle a little bit, are you? Isn't that illegal?" Ino's words in Sakura's ear made her wince.

Sakura waved her friend away. "Ino, don't be gross. Why is everything sexual with you?"

"I had to sit on a bench for twelve freaking minutes with Itachi Freaking Uchiha. You tell me how I should behave, because, ah," Ino groaned suggestively, clutching her heart in dramatic fashion. "That's a screen door I would just love to bang. How can you keep your hands to yourself with that sleeping down the hall, likely defenseless and shirtless? You think he sleeps shirtless? Boxers for sure."

Sakura rubbed her eyes, hating the mental image Ino summoned. The blond witch just laughed and pulled Sakura along.

They first stopped in an outlet store for basic everyday clothes for Sakura to browse. Ino stayed close, more so there for Sakura than the jeans they both tried on.

The next stop was a higher end Dillards knock of type of store where Ino showed off what it was like to be in her element. Both girls tried on dresses together before Sakura settled on one for formal occasions and another for less formal occasions. She didn't have many dresses left.

Sakura was very efficient about her shopping, and the pair ended up finished before two hours had passed. Ino was about to recommend another store for accessories when Sakura's stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten much. The pair got Italian dinners and ate in a restaurant that was nearly empty.

Sakura realized in addition to how much she missed Ino, just how much she appreciated Ino. Living in the manor with Itachi and the others was fine, fun even, but Ino was safe. Sakura felt free to be herself around Ino, and that included the messy ugly self that doubted and cowered and even cried sometimes. Ino knew it all. Ino was one of two people Sakura had shared her experience with, and the only one who actually believed Sakura.

"You know that once this horned woman nonsense is over I'm coming to visit every week. You'll need me."

"I'll need you?"

"If you're doing what I think you're doing, then yeah. How many breakdowns have you had so far?" Ino looks up from her food and her blue eyes are hard. "You've been through more shit than anyone I know. You'll need me if you're digging into it again."

"I'll be nice to see you around," Sakura admitted. "Just as long as Sarutobi is okay with it."

Ino hummed. "Did he know you were a White Rabbit when he put you on his 20 days to health and recovery rehab plan?"

Sakura snorted. "What do you think?"

Ino shrugged. "Yeah, I guess there's not many of you out there. You tell him what court you came from, anything like that?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, but I bet they could figure it out if they did some digging. How many courts do you think have had a champion White Rabbit that also happened to be human on their payroll? Bah. It doesn't matter."

"Do you want him to know?"

"Ino,' Sakura sighed her friend's name like a surrender. "I don't know what I want anymore. I just thought I wanted a stable job and maybe some better working conditions, a health plan, a dog… I had enough of the other world, I just wanted to be normal again, cause normal is-."

Her words end abruptly when Sakura heard Ino's muffled snort. Narrowing angry green eyes she glared at the blond until Ino finally relented and gave up an explanation.

"Normal was never what you wanted, otherwise you wouldn't have tampered with the yarrow and mistletoe all through school. You would have never touched you magic and you would have never known how to save me. If normal was what you really wanted than you would have never put on that rabbit skin again. But you did…twice before Sarutobi. Normal was never what you wanted. You just wanted to not hurt anymore, and then after that…"

Sakura waved a hand in the space between the two girls. "What? What do you think I want?"

Ino shrugged and the smile was infuriating. What made it worse was how likely she was to be right. No one knew Sakura better than Ino. No one knew Sakura's secrets like Ino did.

"You tell me once you figure it out, forehead."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

Sakura grumbled, stuffing her mouth full of bread from the free bread basket. They were still warm and made Sakura feel like melting. Ino was staring at Sakura and with every passing second there was more weight in the look. When there was only one roll left in the basket Ino relented and reached for it.

Sakura wouldn't need to ever tell Ino anything. Ino would already know log before Sakura ever discovered the truth for herself.

After food they went to get their nails done and Sakura felt dread pooling in her gut when she thought about having to leave Ino. She dragged her feet and pulled handful of excuses out of her bag, but soon it was twilight and Sakura knew she had to leave.

The friends parted before the sun could set and half an hour later Sakura was pulling into the garage. She killed the engine and clicked the garage door button from inside the car before turning off the lights and climbing out.

She expected it to be dark in the garage with only the low lights on, but the overhead lights came on, making Sakura wince and blink against the sudden brightness.

"Sai?" The young man stood on the steps to the side exit with one hand still on the light switch.

"It was dark," he explained stiffly.

He started to turn and then glanced back once before stepping out. Sakura watched him go before following him out of the garage. Closing the door behind her she saw Sai waiting at the next door leading into the house, watching her.

"Were you waiting for me?" she teased, trying to be light.

"You were later than two hours."

"I wanted to visit my friend longer," Sakura said, walking in with him as the door shut behind her. "I haven't seen her in a long time and she's very dear to me."

"How did you make her into your friend?"

The exited in the hallway outside the kitchen and Sakura stopped, tugging at the scarf around her neck. Sai's question struck her as odd. The way he asked it was not how she would have expected a person to word it. "We met when she felt me practicing magic with my yarrow wand. I couldn't control it very well when I got back. I had to relearn everything."

"That is how you met. That is not how you became friends." Sai stands firmly in the way. "I wish to know how you established a friendship."

Sakura's mind went blank like a computer overloading and forcing a shutdown. When did she and Ino become friends? How did they establish their friendship? It all just sort of happened and it would be easier to find the exact place where the color of the sky changes at sunset than it would be to find the exact moment friendship started between the two girls.

"It's not an easy question to answer…" Sakura began but the look on Sai's face made her want to try and go on. He rarely looked so invested in a conversation. "But I think it started when she helped me. When she helped me I felt kindness and because of her kindness a friendship was able to bloom. The friendship was reciprocated when I showed a kindness back to her and we grew together after that. I wanted to be around her and she wanted to be around me. Friendships also are about liking the other person. Ino and I liked each other right away."

"Are all friendships started with a kindness?" Sai asks.

"No, not all. Most of my friendships start this way though."

Sakura thought of Kakuzu and the subtle kindness that drew them together in the first place. He was gruff, but he was fair and he helped her when she needed it. She liked Kakuzu as a friend and worked hard to be someone he liked having around. At best he tolerated most people. Sakura was the exception.

"For friendships to establish there must be kindness and interest," Sai summarized, sounding thoughtful. The idea of friends sounded new to him.

"Sai?" He looked up when she called. "Do you have friends?"

"I have never had need of friends before."

"Would you like friends?"

Sakura shook his head briefly. "No, I have no need for multiple friendships when their nature is still so unknown to me. I do not need friends in order to achieve my objectives."

Sakura heart always seemed to hurt for the boy broken by fairyland. He was so lost. She wanted to erase all the horrors of his time as a plaything for those fiends and replace those years with ones of comfort and care. What kind of kid thinks of friendships as unknown and unnecessary? The kind that doesn't know any better.

"Sai?" He watched her, waiting for her words. "I want you to be my friend. Will you be my friend?"

If he was expecting to hear that from her he hid it well. For normally being so expressionless, she saw the way his eyes widen and his lips parted. His chest rose on a caught breath for a moment longer than usual before the breath came out, shuddered and uneasy. He almost took a step back, but stood in place, swaying slightly.

"You have need of my friendship?" he asked, still not understanding her request. What a broken boy.

"I don't need your friendship, that's not how it works. I want to be your friend, Sai. I like you enough to want to see you again and hang out and talk. Maybe not with so much booze next time, but I do enjoy your company. It's not something I need, but something I want."

"Want." He repeats the word like it's something new to him.

"Yeah. Um, just think about it, kid. It's not a big deal." Sakura still had bags in her arms that she remembered when one started to slip down her arm. "I'm just going to go up to put my things away, but I'll be back down here at the usual time."

Sakura bruised past him to head up the stairs when he snapped back to attention and moved to stop her, grabbing her by the wrist with impressive speed. She stopped and waited for him.

"You're my friend as well."

Sakura felt a little less pain in her chest when she looked at Sai and smiled.

The fifth, sixth, seventh, and even the eights horned woman came without major issue. Sakura had worried about the seventh and eighth horned woman, but all it took was an additional barrier and little more concentration to hold the binds in place. That was nothing Sai and Sakura couldn't handle together.

After struggling for so long the woman with eight horns relented and sank away from the wards and the barriers. Sakura felt their humming lessen as a stillness took over. The horned woman was still close, still near, but there was nothing she could do to break what Sakura and Sai tried so hard to maintain. If the horned woman attempted another assault she would only end up exhausting herself.

Sakura didn't leave the halls, stalking the presence from inside, following along the windows as close as possible. She ended up in a west facing parlor with windows as high as the ceiling would allow. The woman with eight horns stood just beyond the boundary laid out behind the hedges, floating on feet that didn't touch the ground.

Sakura stared back, seeing her one reflection caught in the glass like a ghost. She was just a girl in bare feet, a loose shirt and slouching sweats. She didn't look intimidating, but she knew how she could change that in a moment. All it took was a thought, and admission deep in her heart, and the foreign magic that waited like a well behind her ribs would tip and spill and fill her full. No longer a girl, she would be something otherworldly, caught somewhere between fully fay and fully human.

The woman with eight horns lifted her head and listened to the shrieks of her lesser sisters. They floated like wraiths back into the mist and were no more. Sakura sensed it too, how they went from being on the breath of their threshold to far, far away.

The night is safe and her watch is over, but somehow Sakura can't put her heart to rest. She turns from the room and finds herself back in the main hall where she left Sai. He's already gone, but that's fine. He stayed up with her late last night asking questions and prying stories from her with greed. He had to be exhausted after so many late night.

The house was quiet.

So why wasn't her heart?

"I'm almost upset I haven't been summoned yet. You know the Jacob Sigils are out, right?" Shisui asked from over her shoulder.

Sakura caught herself from snapping in reaction and forced herself to turn in a measured speed that betrayed her shock, giving her an appearance of calm when she really was anything but that.

Shisui was wearing a new suit with shoulders capped in gleaming feathers to match the plume sticking out of his breast pocket. He grinned wide at her and leaned like he was a model on the cover of a high end fashion magazine. He looked like he put calculated effort into his appearance this time.

"Miss me?" he cooed.

"What was your name again?" Sakura asked, voice blank.

It did the trick as all the confidence and snark dropped out of him. He staggered off his heels, hands sweeping for something to hold onto, eyes wide. A moment later he blinked and almost glared. "Oh, you minx. You're a sly one."

Sakura shrugged. "There are few things the vanity of a fay can suffer that's greater than being forgotten. Your kind just loves to make an impact."

"You make light of my horror. To be forgotten by someone you wish to make harmony with is a devastation. It's only worse when that someone is a person you hold with high regard."

"You can save your flattery. What do you want?"

Shisui took a half step forward before rocking back onto his heels, holding his hands behind his back as his eyes flashed over her form, searching for something before settling on her face. He seemed to be weighing his words before he opened his mouth to speak. "I can not see you without reason?"

"You have a reason." Sakura made sure there was no way he would misinterpret her look of disbelief. "It's late and I wish to sleep."

He grinned mischievously. "I could help you with that." She didn't doubt his words meant to say, 'I could do that with you,' or something like that.

Here eyes were narrowed pools of emerald fire. On the beach driftwood a sick colored green and the equal to that brilliant, living color was found only in her eyes for such a time as these. "I will wake the house and chase you out."

"You're stunning, pale creature," Shisui sighed, holding the side of his face as he stared down at her, lifting up onto the tips of his feet. "I've come to offer you more of my aid."

"I don't need it."

"You've only seen eight nights. You have several more to go. You think the woman of eleven horns will be turned over by anything so mediocre? The next night there will be hell with the ninth woman, if not her than the tenth. You need all the help you can get and Itachi's not by our side." He stepped forward, leaning over her, bending slightly. "But I am. I'm here. Use me as you will and you need not fear a one hundred horned woman."

"How kind of you to offer such help from the goodness of your heart. You haven't even mentioned the reward you expect for such a deed." Sakura was not one to be intimidated as she stood where she willed, refusing to surrender an inch.

"You trust me so little, and you've that right. You're too smart to give in so easily, but I'll prove to you I'm worth the price."

Sakura feels her lip curls and recognizes the sensation of revulsion stirring in her gut when she remembers all the good that came out of deals with devils. Fay are no better. "Humans are so easy for you to tease. You promise them glitter, the health of their mother, the success of their brother, a yield for their withered crop, but in the end what we gain is never as great as our loss." Sakura didn't expect to, but she felt a swell of anger lick her belly as she turned on her heel and glared sharply at the intruder. "I'll not be ruined a second time."

Shisui stands still for a moment, no longer dancing on his heels or striking poses in the hallway. He's still and it doesn't suit him. "I wouldn't want to ruin you," he admits after a while. "It's just a rule."

She knows he's referring to the aid he wishes to give her. Fay are creatures of great, raw magic, more than any human or wizard. But with that magic there are strings that no one knows the origins of. Just as humans grapple with the meaning of life and the existence of higher powers with names and boundaries, the other words grapple with the old laws from the time before time, and the strings that bind them like iron barriers.

"You've nothing to gain from me, Uchiha. Seek your fortune elsewhere."

She turned towards the stairs, hands going into her hair to scrunch it in agitation. She was tired, she looked like a mess, and she felt like she needed a shower. Shisui was the last person she wanted to be talking to at one in the morning.

She stepped onto the stars but stopped when she saw Shisui land on a step several ahead of her. He came closer so they were only a couple apart. His palms were up, defensive. "Wait, what did you mean by that? You don't think I couldn't just want to help you because you're like me?"

"I'm not like you."

He took another step towards her, they were one away with him towering over her. There was a mask over half his face, trimmed in gold and shaped like a rabbit. Sakura inhaled sharply, back going stiff at the sight. He waved a hand and the mask was gone, along with the outfit for a male Black Rabbit.

"You know we've played the Rabbit Games for as long as we can remember? The game before mine was a lost, and I think the one before that we won, but it's been too long since I've met someone I think I could…relate to. I've never thought well of anyone before, and I think you could understand that. They made us wear masks and run. You understand what that means. You understand what that feels like."

"I'm not like you," Sakura repeated, nearly snarling the words as her fingers itched for a handle of ivory and the smell of burning mistletoe.

Shisui almost bristled at the force of her words, looking a cross between hurt and angry. "What do you know about me? You won't even get to know me or let me try. You're not this cold to Itachi."

"Itachi doesn't go kidnapping children for murder games."

Shisui looked like he felt the sting of those words, glancing down. When he lifted his eyes again they were red and spinning, not at all the way rabbit eyes are red. His red eyes were the mark of an Uchiha.

"And what would you know of Itachi?"

Sakura fell into a world not unlike the one Itachi sucked her into so many days ago. The world where he was a hunter and she a rabbit, a world that wasn't fairyland but no less dangerous. Sakura knew she was in the world of an Uchiha's mind.

Cursing, Sakura reaching for that power behind her ribcage and felt it burn her humanity away as the mask of the Rabbit once again set atop her face. She smelled burning and grabbed the hilt of the mistletoe sword as it emerged from her chest, peaking like the mast of an ocean ship from between her breasts. Drawn so, it emerged with a gleaming edge that hadn't been present when she quick drew it.

Sarutobi had been with her last time, and Itachi had taken her into his world with her permission and consent. This time was different. She didn't trust Shisui and she was alone.

Itachi's world had been dead and dying, but Sakura turned and saw plenty of rolling green hills filled with flowers as a near black dusk dragged the sky down with the weight of so many stars. Shisui stood not too far away, still dressed well and missing his mask. He had watched her become a rabbit and he had watched her draw her sword the same way he had watched her turn towards him; completely transfixed and unmoving.

"You're not in danger here," he said as she leveled her sword and bent her knees.

"You wanna know how many times I've been told that?"

"I don't want you harmed. I wouldn't do that."

A part of Sakura feels the truth of his words. She understands that whatever his aim or goal might be, her injury wouldn't play into it. The part of her ruled by logic understood this, but it was the part of her that was wild and hurt and feeling that she listened to when she lowered her sword. Shisui wasn't going to hurt her, but she didn't have to trust him.

"You brought me here without my permission." The words are less harsh than before, but do not lack bite.

His shoulders relax and his face becomes a little softer. "I'll send you right back, but these are memories. I wanted to share these with you."

He extends his hand to her but Sakura doesn't take it as she begins to walk in his direction. He drops it right away and hurries to keep pace with her, walking alongside her so close that their elbows brush at times. When they crest the hill Sakura sees the ruins of Roman columns that once supported a pantheon's frame. Chalk white stone lay in scattered cubs and broken bits all along the way. There is a path to the ruined temple but it's so overgrown Sakura can't see it. She only knows it's there when she feels the texture of walking over it.

There is a figure at the end of the temple and Sakura stops dead when she feels the fear pool like a peach pit in her gut. All the hair on her arm stands up and her mouth is sick with the taste of rotting apples. Everything about her tells her to run, to get away, and she knows that't the rabbit in her.

There's a taunting in her brain. 'Look away if you can't take it.'

But Shisui was still advancing on the image of the figure so Sakura squared her fear away in a box that could come undone later and put one foot in front of the other. One foot, one foot, one foot… Shisui stopped close enough to still be considered far when he turned to the side and offered her his hand.

"I won't let any harm come to you here."

Sakura doesn't take it, but doesn't move away from him either, and her sword has been gone for long enough for her to have forgotten dismissing it.

"Itachi."

She says his name but he doesn't hear her because he is a memory. Itachi looms and Sakura sees only a flash of the white body in the grass. There is nothing domestic about Itachi. He is all fay with dark pools of eyes and claws looking like they were dipped in soot as his armor strains with his bending down. A trail of raven feathers falls from his shoulders in two flaps as he reaches into the grass.

Sakura hears a whimper and then Itachi is hissing, lips pulled back and fags bared. There is the sound of shattering and Sakura feels her stomach roll. She nearly staggers and Shisui holds her around the waist as she watches Itachi pull the shattered mask of the White Rabbit up from the dead boy's face. The shattering of a mask is only one of many ways to end the life of a rabbit, so long as it's done the right way. Sakura sees the blood on the inside of the mask drop down Itachi's clawed hands.

'But this isn't the first time you've seen a hunter kill a rabbit,' her inner voice mocked, tone lighter than usual. It's almost enough to trigger the memory of a boy in gold ripping apart the midnight in front of her.

Sakura bolted.

Itachi was a memory in this world but memories had already hurt her so much. One foot in front of the other, bare heels to the wind she dug in with the front of her feet, scratching away the earth in speed surpassing most fay. Sakura ran. She ran, and ran, and when she thought she might reach her limits, she kept on running. When she ran her brain was zeroed in on seeing the world as it blurred past her. There was no more room for idle thought.

Sakura fell apart under a grove of trees and let her body vibrate with the bound up energy. Her panic was well distributed now. She reached up and felt her mask. There were details in the edges painted with gold. She had won, her mask was much finer than the one Itachi shattered. Once upon a time that had almost been her.

There is movement off to the side and Sakura turns to see Shisui, but he is a memory. Shisui is younger with a mask of black and the fitted black uniform of a Black Rabbit. He pants under a tree, choking on his own panic as he holds his head. There are bodies around him, she notices. Sakura sits up to see the rest of the scene. The bodies are both black and white in uniform.

Somewhere along the way, during her staring, her heaving breaths matched up with the memory of Shisui and they both breathed out in ragged gasps until their gasps were soft and their breathing a little less haggard.

She notices he's young in this memory. Fay age so well it's hard to tell, but Sakura's been around enough to recognize the marks of youth. He's little more than a child here. He should have been in high school, but he's sitting in a pile of blood belonging to a man he used to know.

Itachi walks out from among the trees and his hands are wet with blood. He says something and Shisui looks up, eyes wide. A moment later he nods and climbs to his feet. Sakura knows what he will do before he even moves. It's a rule that rabbits and the hunters of their own court can not travel together. Sakura was not allowed to hide with any of the girls from her own court.

Shisui takes off and Itachi wipes the blood of his hands on a white fay's shirt. Sakura feels so lost in the same clearing as a being she never should have felt safe around. All of her nature told her to fear this creature above all. This creature exists only to kill you, her training taught her.

There is a real rustle in the grass behind her and Sakura knows it belongs to the Shisui that isn't a dream. She turns to face him.

"Why have you shown me this?" Sakura gasps, hating how breathless she sounds in hear own ears.

"Itachi did this for me. I was the fastest and chosen for this role when I had no desire to bet my life in one of their games." Shisui tugs on her wrist and she staggers. He holds her shoulders and turns her towards him. "I had no stomach for it and neither did Itachi, but he became a hunter for my sake. The reason I'm alive today is because he became a killer to save me from being killed. But that was only the beginning."

Sakura looks back to the scene but the pantheon is gone from around them. They're in a field. A table is set with food and flowers are woven into wreaths that hang from trees. Itachi stands with a simple mistletoe sword soaked in gold blood. Around him on the grass, on tables, on chairs, the bodies of so many other dark haired fay lie. Itachi looked up and saw one man left. He raises his sword and brings it down with the caw of a crow.

It was a massacre.

"This was his family. The only one who lived was his brother."

Sakura remembered somewhere in the back of her brain Sarutobi telling her about this. Itachi had a younger brother. The reason Itachi served Sarutobi was because the old man had taken Itachi's younger brother out of fairyland and helped the younger Uchiha set up a life living as a human.

"Why the hell am I seeing this…why the hell are you showing this to me?"

"You trust Itachi, but you don't know anything about him." Sakura turns to face him when she hears the envy that had been folded and hidden so carefully under his words. "He plays the part of a pacifist, but he's washed his hands with blood more than anyone else I know."

"That has nothing to do with how I see you," Sakura snarled, hating how the sights made her sick all over again.

"Itachi betrayed us, he left and killed his whole family. You think you're safe with someone like that at your side, living in the same house and under the same roof? He became a hunter for the games but when the games ended Itachi didn't change back, he couldn't. It was my fault, but he became a monster seeking blood."

Sakura remembered the panic that hit her when she first trained with Itachi and how he pulled her onto his lap and held her. He never told Sarutobi about how poorly she fell apart. He was everything she feared but…

"This isn't him anymore."

"You're not safe with him or that old man. You think you are, but that place wasn't made to help you, but to use you. You'll never be safe there." He reached for her hands and held them, thumbs rubbing the underside of her wrists where her veins were flushed and wide with honey gold. "You could come with me."

Sakura threw her hands off and shook off his hold, jumping back at the implication. "Not a chance in hell!"

"Not in the fay world, not like that, no!" Shisui was waving his hands and trying to step closer to her again, but each step he took she took one backwards. "I wouldn't you take you back there where they could find you. I'd keep you safe in my own world, in my own kingdom."

"You've got so many things loose in your head if you think for a bloody second that I would ever consider such a farce," Sakura hissed, hand to her chest to quick draw her sword. "You've done nothing but instigated my anger tonight, Shisui."

He looked as if she had struck him as he switched the weight of his body from one leg to the other, searching for some sort of balance. "Would you have rather not known?"

The sound of his voice struck me and Sakura suspected that there was a layer of regret to his words. But was it regret for his choice to show her, regret for her reaction, or regret for his decision to slander his cousin? Itachi had become a hunter for him. There was no way Shisui didn't feel some sort of guilt over that. Yet, he was still willing to throw his cousin under the bus for his own gain.

"Frankly, yes. Itachi's not the only one with gold blood on his hands. You think a human rabbit won without effort? I've reached my own hands into death often enough. I don't care what he's done. I'll judge what I see with my own two eyes."

Shisui goes back to pacing and almost stammers when he speaks."I-I'd take good care of you. There would never be anything you wanted that I didn't provide for you. We'd be safe there, together. You're not safe in your own human word. Look how easily that man found you. Do you really want to keep being used by him?"

Sakura wanted to bite out how she wasn't being used but she knew that wasn't true. Maybe Sarutobi really wanted to help her, and maybe he truly wished to ease the pain of PTSD survivors from fairyland, but she was being used.

Sakura remembered something and looked up. "Tell me about the Uchiha's plans to destroy the world by waking the sleepers."

Shisui blinked, startled. "The what?"

"It's what Sarutobi fears. He hasn't shared this with me because he doesn't want me involved with it, doesn't want to take advantage of me. He's using me, but he's not abusing me through it."

"You want me to tell you about the four sleepers? Why does Sarutobi think they have anything to do with anything?"

Sakura rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "You're supposed to tell me that."

Shisui huffed and then turned sharply as the scene around them shifted. Sakura saw stone as high as the sky stretching on forever in caves that ran through the heart of the earth. Sakura recognized the marks from the myth. Shisui waved his hand and they were at the end of a great hall overlooking a pit. Sakura stared into the pit and swallowed. Football fields could span the width of the chasm, but it's depth was another story twice as impressive.

Less a pit and more a bed, the chasm was the perfect place for the giant the slumber. Somuns, the father of time who alone knows the hour of the unending. Shisui knew where one of the four pillars of the end of the earth slept. Maybe Sarutobi had a right to worry.

"There is no way to wake him, and there is nothing we would do to provoke such a thing," Shisui sighed. "It would mean our ending as well. We're not stupid, we know that. In the past many have sought the pillars of the ends of the earth and desired their power for themselves, but not one has survived such an endeavor. The Uchiha would not be so foolish."

"You know where he sleeps."

"Of course." He almost grinned, looking down at her. "It's our job to protect him, after all."

He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world to admit. Sakura knew there were families from the fay tasked with keeping watch over the giants and monsters that make up the pillars of the ends of the earth, but she hadn't expected to meet one, or for the Uchiha to be one. The sleepers at the end of the world were a myth all fay children and changelings knew. Four beings tasked with sleeping for all time until the hour arrives when the earth is to be shook to destruction. It's a belief for some and a fairytale to other. Some fay believe the sleepers are no more agents of fate than their own willies, while others rise cults in the name of Sommuns and his brothers. Sakura never gave the stories so much thought before. Maybe it would be better to ask for Sarutobi's version.

Sakura blinked, glancing at the giant and then at Shisui. "You didn't ask for anything," she admitted at last.

Shisui blinked and then his eyes widened in recognition. "Ah, I forgot to ask."

"Did you, or were you hoping I'd notice and think better of you for it?"

"Was I successful?"

Sakura turns her sword around in her hand to have better mobility as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. She tilts her head to the side and stars at the slender Uchiha who looks as smitten as a kitten. "Huh."

He reaches for her hands again and takes only one this time. "I would share so many more secret just for the sound of your voice in my ear. Say my name and I am debased, sweetest one. Never doubt this."

Such honey words.

"You still took me against my will and showed me things I had no wish knowing," Sakura began, voice still hard.

Shisui flinches but a memory stops her from saying more. She remembers the way he ran, young and scared and looking ready to cry as Itachi killed in the background. She remembered the kid in the rabbit mask running for his life, and more than anything, she understood that feeling. There was no way she wouldn't know that feeling. She didn't doubt there were other memories of him looking worse, throwing up in fear, crying silently, begging to the forces above for luck and favor, praying for one more day of running.

"Take me back," Sakura just said, sounding too tired to be angry.

The flirty air was gone when Shisui took her hands and then her shoulders. He cupped her face and tilted it back. His eyes were spinning and she fell into them, not caring if her own were filling with tears.

Sakura staggered. She was back in the hallway and Shisui stood an arm's reach away, looking like he wanted to steady her, arms outstretched but hesitant. She waved him off, sitting down on the steps as her mask faded away with the ret of her power. The recoil hit her like the fist of a small child and she was glad for it. A moment and the pain passed.

"Sakura?"

She looked up and saw him kneeling.

"I've upset you." It wasn't a question.

"If you're ever to show me secrets again, make sure they're your own. I want to be alone right now."

"I'm coming back tomorrow night." Sakura glared at him and he went on. "If I was able to slip in after that woman tomorrow you will have another fight on your hands. You can hate me if you need to, but I'm going to be here and I hope you don't hate me anyway."

"That's not my concern. You should take that up with Sarutobi. This is his house."

"I'm not helping for him."

"You're not helping for free either, are you?"

His face colored with a pretty blush. His black hair was curled to prettily around his fay face. It was unfair how lovely he was to look at. "I'll do it for you. I'll do it without asking, without reward."

That's what he said, but it wasn't entirely unselfish. Even his offer to do it without payment was because he wanted something. He wanted her good will, her trust, a closer bond like the one she had with Itachi. She was the reward.

Sakura felt her eyes narrow. "Why?"

"Cause that's what you want and I don't care about making anyone else on this earth happy." He reached forward to kiss her jaw, light and soft, and then he was gone.

Sakura stumbled into her bed and turned the alarm clock away, hating how the angry red letters of 2:59 glared at her. She pulled up her covers and sank into them, resolving to think about all that happened tomorrow.

Chapter

VII

Karin's nails were broken and bleeding, having been stripped and shattered down to the nail beds. Still, she clawed and grabbed with the last of her strength. She was slipping and Sakura watched from above. If Karin fell it would mean one less contestant in the trials. But, if she fell it would also mean death.

There were dogs howling far off and then the yips of victory. The pack had found another girl. How many were left now? How many were still alive? How many would be standing when the game came to an end?

Karin screamed as one of the rocks fell from under her hand and she swung wildly on the cliff. Even if she was fay, this was too much for her already tortured body to take. She had been bull headed, stubborn and stupid. It was her own damn fault she was in the state she was.

The barking grew louder. The dogs were coming closer. Did they smell her?

Sakura was running out of time and she couldn't waste anymore of it. She needed to get to the tower in the woods and pass the trial before someone else claimed the victory icon. Sakura had lost the first victory game. There were only nine and every test she failed made her weaker.

She wasn't like the other girls. She wasn't a fay. The other humans had already died by now, Sakura was the last one alive.

Karin cried out again and it almost sounded like a sob.

Cold ass Karin crying? Karin who took so much pleasure in stomping on the competition, that Karin was crying?

The dogs were close, Sakura could hear their barks. Soon there would be victory yips and sinking teeth and the snarl of ripping flesh.

"It's your own damn fault for choosing to scale the cliff," Sakura hissed , forcing herself to look away.

Sakura turned.

The rocks gave out from under Karin's bloody hand and she fell with a scream.

Sakura awoke with a roll in her gut that warned her she might be sick if she moved too suddenly, so she shifted only slightly and pressed her head back into the pillow and closed her eyes. It was maybe afternoon if the dull light from her windows told her anything. She cracked open a single eye and sighed when she saw how late it was. She had slept thirteen hours. Maybe that recoil had hit her harder than she thought. Or maybe it was her depression keeping her in bed.

The was a shift in the bed next to her and she turned, a little faster than she should have, to see Sai sitting atop her covers with a sketchbook and ink pen. He paused, pen hovering over paper before he put it away. "You're awake."

"Sai?" Sakura blinked, hating how messed up her head felt. Her stomach rolled. Oh, her stomach was messed up too. "What are you?"

"The child got angry at me when I tried to wake you, so I've kept watch since."

"When you tried to wake me?" Sakura blinked long and then opened her eyes to see the clock on her nightstand once more, glaring angrily at her in harsh red numbers. "When was that?"

"Several hours ago. I've had plenty to hold my attention." He pushed the sketchbook aside and scooted closer to her side as she struggled to sit up. It seemed as if he was about to hold her and help her up, but he kept his hands to himself as Sakura pushed herself up on her own.

"I've been tired."

"You went to bed several hours after I or anyone else in the house." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah."

Sai frowned at her lack of explanation. "Why?"

"I had a visit."

Sai leaned forward, expression muddled between annoyance and despondency. "Shisui."

"Yeah, how did you know?" Sakura asked, pushing away the covers and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stood and felt the aches in her back snap and pop. She smelled a little and knew she needed a shower. She had been too tired last night to risk it, but she probably wouldn't fall asleep in the shower now. She was pulling clean things out of the top drawer when Sai's words made her flinch.

"He's still downstairs."

Sakura spun. "What do you mean he's still downstairs?"

Sai blinked. "He is still downstairs," he said, voice low and words slowed. "We are upstairs. He is downstairs, currently."

"What the hell is he doing here in this house? I thought Sarutobi was going to keep him out."

Sai shrugged. "Itachi was here earlier but you were asleep when he asked for you. Shisui appeared after that."

"What did they talk about?" Sakura had the clean clothes in one hand as she searched for a set of matching socks. She pulled out a pair of blue ones with narwhals and mermaids.

"They said nothing to me and I was not privy to the details of their conversation." Sai shifted on hr bed. "But it was mostly about Shisui helping us tonight with the horned woman. He thinks we are incapable."

"You got all that from your little ink spies?" Sakura hummed, eyeing his sketchbook. Sai sat up straighter and Sakura waved off his unasked question. "It reeks of magic and Danzo left you behind to spy on us in the first place. It would make sense."

"How could you know that?" he asked, face filling with panic and color in equal measure.

Sakura blinked, still feeling a bit unsteady as she leaned against the door jam to her "You think you were subtle?"

Sai slowly stood and Sakura tasted the magic in her mouth but didn't move. "You are mistaken."

"Sarutobi knew it too," Sakura said around a yawn. "But he also knew you were a mess and even if you were here to spy on us he hoped to help you."

"And you?" Sakura blinked in question so Sai repeated himself. "And what do you think? When you told me you wanted to be…" His voice stops and he looks away. "Did you always know."

She rubbed the side of her face, feeling the last threads of sleep tug on her again. "I knew when I told you I wanted to be your friend, and I meant it when I said that. I don't care what you're doing or who you're working for, that doesn't change the way I feel." Her heart would always hurt for Sai. "But I need to take a shower. Is it dinnertime, is there food? You wanna eat something once I get out?"

"I-yes. I-I would like that." Sai's voice was thin and he looked down. When he heard the door to the bathroom shut the sound of him falling back onto the bed was loud enough for Sakura to hear.

She turned the water on, stripped, and stepped in. The water was warm and she could feel so many parts of her coming undone under the water. It felt good so she lingered. Later when she was out and brushing through her hair in a town and her unmentionables she was quiet enough to hear the knocking at her bedroom door.

She paused, brush held frozen in place as a figure, likely Sai, got up from the bed to answer the door.

"Where is Sakura?" The voice belonged to Shisui.

"She is not here."

"What are you doing in her room?" Shisui's voice seemed clipped. Sakura wondered if he was impatient for something. There was a movement and Sakura suspected Shisui had brushed Sai aside and entered the room on his own.

"Drawing."

"Hn. You can't do that somewhere else?"

Sakura heard a louder scuffle and almost moved to open her door and see what it was from when she caught herself. It might not be the best thing for her to go out just yet.

"That is not yours." Sai's voice was hard and there was more of a scuffle.

"You were drawing her? What is this? The last few pages there is hardly anything else."

"It's not yours. Return it to me."

"What are you doing with these? Are you planning on hurting her?"

Sakura heard paper ripping and nearly opened the door when the scuffling was loud enough to make her think they had overturned furniture. She paused, hand on the handle and waited to hear what would come next.

Her hair was wet over her shoulders, soaking the top of her shirt. She needed to finish brushing her hair and braid it before it soaked much more but she didn't want to move her hands.

"I would never do that. You are the one everyone wards against. You are the dangerous one here."

"Right that they should fear me, but it's the snake in the grass that feels giants." There was the sound of papers scattering and a sketchbook falling to the wood floor. "Stay away from her and stay out of her room."

"I won't leave her to you and you can't tell me what to do. You have no authority here. Itachi hasn't given you his permission to stay."

Shisui snorted. "As if I needed his permission. I just need Sakura to agree and the others won't ward against me anymore. I'm worth too much to turn away right now."

"We could manage without you."

Another sound of derision from Shisui. "I'm sure you'd like that too. Just you and her, alone at night? Well, otherkin, horned lady number nine and ten are going to kick your ass. If they don't, lady eleven will wipe the floor with your remains. You don't remember what it was like for this house last year. It's built on too many veins of power to be ignored like Danzo's house is."

"Sakura will be fine with just me."

"For being a soldier stripped of emotion, you show your true heart too easily. Give it up, otherkin. She doesn't look twice your way."

"She's my friend."

"So?"

"Your presence aggravates her. Itachi's presence unnerves her, but you are worse."

"And what, you're the healing balm she's been looking for this whole time?" Shisui snorted. "Don't make me laugh. Where is Sakura?"

"I've already told you, she is not here."

And it was just Sakura's luck, that the shampoo bottle on the edge of the counter decided to slip the rest of the way down the slick surface. It clattered to the floor loud enough for boys with normal hearing to hear. There was no way Shisui or Sai missed it. She shut her eyes and reached up into her hair to scrunch it in agitation as she heard them shuffle outside.

"You said she wasn't here."

"She's not," Sai insisted in his reply. His tone was back to being clipped and cold. "This is her bedroom. She is not here in the bedroom. Other rooms are considered elsewhere. You should leave before Itachi comes to retrieve you."

Sakura missed the part when she heard about Itachi still being in the house. Wasn't it late? He would need to go back to Danzo soon. She should probably go down to greet him before he left.

She grabbed a towel, not caring if she was noisy, and draped it over her head, using it to ruffle her hair dry. One hand still in her hair, she opened the door to her bedroom and let the steam out. Shisui and Sai straightened at the sight of her and she glared at the mess around their feet. Many of Sai's papers were in shreds on the floor and her armchair was on it's side. She eyed the armchair pointedly and Shisui rushed to set it upright.

"I'm going downstairs to talk to Itachi if he's still here. If you have something to say to me you can say it outside of my bedroom after I finish talking with your cousin."

She let the towel slip off her head and caught it before it could hit the floor. She balled it and tossed it back onto the tiles of her bathroom before turning towards the main doors. Sakura knew Shisui would follow her, but when she didn't hear Sai' footsteps she turned to see him kneeling on the ground, putting together pieces of paper that looked like the were once a part of his notebook. Sakura saw on a scrap of a piece the lines of a face and knew it had been a portrait.

Damn.

Sakura's heart hurt for the kid. She left the doors and shouldered past Shisui to kneel beside Sai and pick up what she could. Sai refused to look at her as he accepted the pieces she collected. He made an effort to turn away from her whenever she picked up a piece that might have been a portrait.

"I'm sorry about your art pieces." Sakura turned one over that wasn't a person and saw the outlines of a crow sketched in ink. "This one is lovely."

Sai huffed, taking the piece of paper from her hand and then carrying the mess over to her room's trash bin. Sakura flinched when she heard his book hit the bottom of the bin. Sai wouldn't look at her as he brushed past and left out the way she had meant to moments earlier. Sakura watched him go, holding herself back. He needed alone time, or time to himself.

When Shisui tried to come up alongside her she flinched and turned to glare. "Don't you ever do something like that again. I don't care what your reasons are. You had no right to destroy his property." When he opened his mouth Sakura knew what he was about to say and pushed his face away with the palm of her hand. "I said I don't care for your reasons. Why do you think you can talk to me."

Sakura left and Shisui followed, but at a distance. Sai wasn't in the blue room when she entered, but Sarutobi was there with Itachi. Both stood up when she entered and both stiffened when Shisui trailed in after her. Sakura frowned at the trio, expecting as much tension. There had to be more history between the three than she knew.

"You three already spoke while I was sleeping, didn't you?" Sakura asked, eyes still heavy as she reaches for a parlor chair and sinks into it. She's still heavy in her body and light in her brain.

It's Sarutobi who takes his seat again and answers her. "Here is where we stand; Shisui has come asking to aid you and Sai tonight. Sai is opposed to the suggestion." He gestured to Itachi. "Itachi is conditionally supportive, and I am neutral on the matter until I hear from you."

"Oh?" Sakura watched Sarutobi, gesturing for the old man to go on.

Sarutobi carded his fingers over his chest. "Ah. My feelings are against the decision, but logically speaking it is only to your benefit. I believe Shisui when he gives his word on this."

"What word?" Sakura echoes, still feeling too light and too heavy in all the wrong ways. She holds onto the arms of the chair and sits up straighter, keeping her spine straight and posture deceptively alert. All she wants to do is sleep a little more and maybe not wake up for a few decades, but she hides that on her face. She wears a mask of wakefulness and plays the part like a master actor.

Still, she can feel the way Itachi watches her, like he knows better. She's not fooling him. Or maybe it's because she's hyper aware of where his eyes land and where his hands rest.

She wants to curse Shisui for this new wave of fear or paranoia that taints her thoughts. She's not in the game anymore. She doesn't need to be afraid of Itachi anymore. She's not a rabbit anymore. He's not a hunter anymore.

"It will be harder tonight," Itachi finally adds, leaning against the table in the middle of the room. "I don't doubt your victory, but you will be spent if you start stretching yourself thin on this day. There are still four more nights."

"Three," Sarutobi corrects. "The last night we will be together and it will not be so terrible."

"Regardless…" Itachi lets his voice trail off. He nodded towards his cousin who rested his hip on the molding that crept around the fireplace. Shisui smiled impishly at the other Uchiha, causing Itachi to look away with a disgruntled expression. "I do not believe Shisui means to do anything to earn your ill will."

Sakura watched Itachi watch her. The way he turned away from his cousin and regarded her made her suspect he knew nothing of what Shisui had shown her last night. It made her skin crawl even more than when she thought of him as a hunter. She had secrets she didn't want others knowing, (one of the many reasons she was so hesitant to work with Sarutobi), and the idea that she knew some of Itachi's made her feel dirty. Wrong. She was wrong and the guilt was gnawing on her bones.

"Sarutobi, can you and Shisui wait outside for a minute. I want five minutes alone with Itachi."

Shisui startled where he stood, brows drawn together as he glanced between her and his cousin. Sarutobi, to his credit, didn't ask any questions, but agreed to her request all the same. He rose from his seat like it was the most natural thing and let himself out. Before crossing the threshold he turned back and waved to Shisui, who compiled a minute later. The fay boy left with his shoulders hiked and a dark look marring his features.

The door clicked shut and Itachi turned back to watch her, waiting for an explanation. Sakura touched her fingertips together and then dropped her hands altogether as she stood from her chair.

His head turned towards the door slightly and Sakura shrugged in reply. No one had warded the door so of course Shisui and Sarutobi would be listening. As kind as the old man was, Sakura knew he was a wizard and wizards were nosy as hell. She didn't care. She just didn't want them watching her while she confessed.

"Shisui showed me your past last night and I saw things I thought I shouldn't have. Did he tell you that?"

There was a moment of silence that was loud enough for Sakura to hear the unspoken answer. No, Shisui hadn't told Itachi what he showed her in the dark. "That explains the exhaustion." He shifted, regarding her from a new angle. "As well as the hesitancy. It was a memory from my days as a hunter in the Rabbit Games?"

Sakura frowned, but nodded. "One of them."

Itachi waved her words off. "I can guess with ease what other memory he showed you. There are little other scenes as damning as ones where son's murder their parents." When she didn't stiffen he almost smiled. "Aren't you curious enough to ask me about it?" He gestured to the door. "We are alone."

"I won't. That wasn't my intention in asking for your privacy. I only wanted you to hear that I knew and how it happened. It wasn't my wish to pry into your affairs."

"My pride suffers. Even with my cousin's troublesome meddling, you're still not interested enough to ask about me?" His voice is light enough to be teasing and she can tell he's not troubled.

"If you feel the need to tell me, you can make that decision for yourself on your own time. I'll not pry the answers from you." Sakura reached behind her and felt the arms of her chair before sinking back into it.

"Would you make the time to listen?"

"Of course." She didn't even hesitate. Itachi wasn't Sai, but for some reason Sakura felt a twinge of pain when she thought about the fay man in the service of a wizard. How had that happened? Why had that happened? Regardless of her best guesses, she doubted the truth was anything pleasant.

He almost smiles at her, like there's a promise between them. "I'll seek you to share my burdens after this horned women nonsense."

"Speaking of which…" Sakura inclined her head towards the door. "Your thoughts on the matter change any since then?"

"No. I'm not surprised. Shisui is my older cousin by a flower's time, but he is not my equal in maturity."

"Real mature of you to admit that," she drawled sarcastically.

"It doesn't take maturity to admit what the blind can see. But if anything, I'm now more in favor of him staying here. He was foolish and taxed you needlessly. You'd be better to abuse his favor tonight in recompense."

"I'll be fine by midnight," Sakura grumbled, leaning back into the chair.

She knew the lie was a lie before it even formed in her mouth. She was sluggish and needed more rest. In addition to all the magical crap and taxation on her physical human body, seeing Itachi in the dream and in real life taxed her anxiety to an awful degree. If for nothing else, the nightmares wore her thin too. She needed to ask Sarutobi about that.

"You may, but you need not be." He took a step towards the door and paused. "See what a Black Rabbit can do and abuse his kindness for one night. If what you told me is true then he is desperate to win back some favor. "

"How kind of you to throw your family under the bus for me."

Itachi's hand was on the door and he was close to leaving when he looked back over his shoulder and smiled secretly, as if to himself. "Ah, I would throw far more precious things under the bus for you, my friend, but Shisui is not so precious I fear."

He'd never called her friend before, never labeled what sort of bond existed between them, and Sakura found herself grinning at the sound of it. "Friend." She tried the word out and liked it even more.

"Indeed." His hand was still on the handle but he didn't turn it or moved to let himself out. "Before I go, as one of those close enough to call you such, I'll ask for a dance on Sunday's gathering. You'll save one for me?"

"I don't dance."

Itachi almost snorted, but the sound was too elegant to be called something so crude. "Oh no? And how long did you spend in a fairy court?"

"I never said I couldn't dance." She leaned her head back in the seat, feeling heavy and light all at once. "One dance, that's it."

"That's all I ask."

Sakura closed her eyes and heard the door open and Itachi step out. Words were exchanged and someone came close to her and touched her shoulder. She couldn't find it in herself to stir for Shisui, but after the second shake she cracked open an eye. He was crouched in front of her, eyes wide and pleading.

"Tonight?" He wanted to know if he could stay.

Sakura felt him reach for her hands and take them into his. She felt his thumbs brush over her knuckles and rub circles. Sakura pulled her hands away and stood, forcing herself to move. "Hn, why don't you pull your own weight and show us how well you can manage a nine horned woman."

It wasn't a question, but it made him blink in confusion and then happiness all the same.

"You won't regret it," he declared in confidence.

Sakura didn't think she would.

Itachi left soon after their meeting and when Midnight drew near Sarutobi actually bothered to stay up with them and watch from a distance, offering no help as the trio took up positions around the front door. Sarutobi warned them that at least one layer of the barrier would break tonight, but the others were a mystery.

Sai was still sullen in a muted sort of way, refusing to show emotion or expression. He kept his face turned towards the corners of the room and the walls whenever Sakura looked back at him. He hung back, making sure Sakura was always between him and Shisui.

Shisui was more than content with the proximity he was allowed. He drifted close to Sakura and at times was almost a fraction of a hand's reach away from her. She felt him like a ghost and turned only to find him a respectable distance apart from her, smile full of mirth and eyes full of knowing.

There was a ripple and then Sai was a hunting dog on alert at her side, pointed at the source beyond the door with piercing eyes. Sakura felt her own body go rigid as Shisui turned towards the source of the disturbance.

"Showtime," he murmured, stepping forward and flickering right out of view. Sakura felt the rip as he stepped over the barriers and outside into the night full of horned women.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sakura hissed, jolting forward to the nearest window and drawing the curtains aside. They had never dared go outside themselves. She felt Sai press close to peer out the same window.

"Showing off, I would assume," Sarutobi answered, peeking out a second window with light interest. "He knows he is not Itachi's rival in power, but he seeks to demonstrate his own brand of strength." Sarutobi let the curtain fall back as he stepped away from the window. "As long as he comes back alive I don't think we have need to worry."

"Why do you say that?" Sai asked, voice heavy with sharp edges that betrayed his sour mood.

Sarutobi turned and started heading up the stairs to his room, back bending even more as he ascended the stairs. He paused on the second step to look back and answer the boy's question.

"I've never seen him want something so well. I'll be the first person to admit not wanting to trust a cad that steal children from homes, but once a creature is understood the fear and hate of said creature is misplaced. I don't like Shisui, but I know enough to understand he is not a danger."

"He's lonely," Sakura finally added, looking back out the window.

Sarutobi hummed, nodding once before chuckling to himself. "That might be one word for it."

The old man seemed to think something more of it, but Sakura understood what it was like to feel set apart from the others and desperate for some familiarity. At one point in her life all she wanted was to see another human girl to know she wasn't truly the last one alive in a sea of fair folk. It was only worse after becoming a White Rabbit; a pariah among wolves. If she lost she would be the reason for their embarrassment. There is no love for the rabbits until they win, and even then it's not true love.

Sakura moved, body still slow and heavy, head still light and floaty. She felt the door handle and pulled it open before taking a breath and stepping over the barriers of the threshold. Sai was close behind her and ready to follow her out but she pushed him back with only the pads of her fingers to his chest.

"One of us should stay inside. I will not go further than the steps here."

Sai looked past her to the figures dashing about in the dark and fog. "He will not be able to see you if you stay so close."

Sakura thought she heard a sneer but didn't look behind her to confirm it. Sai could be bitter if he wanted to, that was his right. She would no doubt be just as upset towards a person that destroyed her personal property. Sai didn't mention it, but Sakura could tell he was still upset about the earlier incident.

"Hey." He looked down at her when she called from the third step down. "Thank you for trying to protect me when I was in the bathroom. I appreciated the extra time."

Some of the hard lines in Sai's eyes faded. "Ah."

Sakura chuckled. "That's what friends do for each other. I'm glad you see me as a friend."

Sai's pout was back, familiar and honest. "Of course. I said so, didn't I? You had better not think I'm a liar."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Sakura then reached for the ground and lowered herself onto one of the steps, stretching out. She kept her body ready to spring into action, but something told her there was enough to distract the women with horns without her. Shisui seemed to enjoy toying with them so openly. Not only was the woman with nine horns present, but several of her sisters as well. None of them could touch the blur that was Shisui, and all they suffered for it was bruised jaws and breastbones.

Sakura felt a thrill and saw a glint of ebony in the blur. For a moment he was still long enough to taunt the woman and be visible. Sakura saw his mask and the sleek black costume that hugged so closely she could see the shape of his biceps through the fabric.

For a moment he hesitated, hands at his sides, looking cocky. She thought she saw him see her, but then he was a staggering blur between the women and then there was lightning that rained down between them with the high pitched chatter of what sounded like a hundred screeching birds. It came in a strike of silver and black, exploding on impact when his hand touched the body of the nearest woman. There was smoke and screaming and then there was running.

Sakura watched it all.

"The One Thousand Chattering Birds."

Sakura turned to glance back over her shoulder as Shisui blurred between the bodies of the women. One wielded a scythe now and the other a sort of war hammer. Their weapons were impractical but they were magical, so it didn't count.

Sai pointed to the one woman with five horns that was sobbing from the pain of the last blow. She wouldn't fight again for the rest of the night. "It's a Uchiha exclusive attack that was cultivated many years ago by extracting the secrets of flight from a thousand birds, they say. It's a scam of a story, but the ability is taught to Uchiha Fay. Itachi's is legendary. Shisui is faster though."

"Naturally." Sakura glanced back at the fight. "I've not heard of such an exclusive ability. Is it just manipulating lightning or electricity?"

"I think we can do that." Sai shifted from where he watched behind the door's threshold. "No it's not so simple, but I do not know the secret to it.

Sakura felt her head swim a bit so she lay down on the steps and turned her head sideways. She felt vulnerable and a part of her was frightened by how little she cared. But Shisui was no mere fay, and he held the woman off with brilliant showmanship. Sakura suspected if he was serious the fight would have been over by now.

Time to end things.

Sakura stood, hating how her tired body protested, and turned back to head inside. There was screeching behind her but Sakura crossed the threshold before the horned woman could make a grab. Sakura turned and saw it was the woman with four horns. With a minimum of effort she summoned her Yarrow Wand and turned it on the woman.

"Burn."

Flames erupted, simmering and turning the very air around her wand hot. The woman fell down the stairs burning and surprised. Sakura didn't doubt she would recover alongside her horned sisters, but it wouldn't be for another night.

The flames ended and Sakura staggered where she stood, feeling her head spin. With a grimace she turned away from the scene and headed back to the stairs.

"Sakura?" Sai's tone was questioning.

"I'm still not feeling well. This is Shisui's punishment for wearing me out last night. I don't get to see the end of his play fight with the women."

"Tomorrow night we'll do drinks," Sai offered.

Sakura smiled at the idea. "Yeah right, you're still a minor."

"And you still can't stop me."

When Sakura awoke in the morning Shisui's face was on the same pillow, eyes closed, body relaxed. His head was a tousled mess of curls around his too perfect face and Sakura felt a hot spike of envy for how lovely he looked on her pillow in her bed.

'Oh no, what did we do now?' the voice in her head chuckled slyly in a way that made Sakura's stomach sink.

She inhaled, blowing up her ribcage with the effort of holding such a large breath, and she felt one of his hands close to her arm. She exhaled and started to pull away, scooting closer to the other side of her bed. One of his legs caught her's and she realized with a disgruntled sigh, that his ankles had been intertwined between her own. When she moved the shifting was enough to cause him to stir.

His eyes were bright pools of glossy black and she was caught. Sakura froze instantly, the way prey animals freeze when they know they are sighted. Her body was taunt like a drawn bowstring ready to spring. But when his lips broke into a sly grin she felt some of the tension diffuse into apprehension. Less likely to bolt, she braced for what was to come.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

Sakura felt something uneasy curl in her stomach at the sound of his voice.

"You're in my bed."

Her voice didn't shake and she was so glad for it, but also surprised. Her insides were a mess of chaos and confusions as her brain scrambled to try and make sense of what she was seeing and experiencing.

"Mmn," he hummed. "I am." When he rolled his shoulders they popped at the joins and she glared when she saw they were bare. She didn't want to find out how far down that trend continued.

Sakura started to scoot away and Shisui sat up even more, reaching for her arm and catching her wrist. She glared at the contact, but he was gentle, loosely holding her so that she could throw him off if she wanted to.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, keeping still while she waited for an explanation.

"You left so early last night. You were cruel and didn't even stay to the end." The way he said the world cruel made something in her bones tingle. It was the roll of the words off his lips, the swell of the sound in her ears.

Sakura shook his hand away and scooted to the far end of the bed, turning her body away while keeping her face turned towards his. She wouldn't look away. Pray know better that to do something so foolish. "And who's fault do you think it is that I felt so terrible and had to leave early? Trust me, it was hardly a choice with the way I felt."

"You were feeling terrible?"

He sat up more and the comforter started to slide down and Sakura couldn't help but look away with a snap of her neck.

'So much skin.'

She pushed herself off the edge of the bed and pulled the loose sleeping braid over her shoulder and started to undo it, threading her fingers through larger and larger chunks and avoiding eye contact with the fay in her bed.

"I was just tired and you looked like you had things under control. Nothing left for me to do." She almost glanced back over her shoulder but caught herself before she could. "What are you doing here? Answer me for real now."

Shisui leaned back down into the sheets and Sakura heard the sound of fabric being pulled as he moved. There was a creak and she did turn this time when she heard him standing up from the bed, directly behind her. He kept the sheet over his middle until the last possible second before letting it fall away to expose silk lounge pants that fell down to his ankles. His chest was left bare, but at least he wasn't nude. Fay had a horrible habit of foregoing everything when they slept unless it was the highest grade silk boxers or negligee.

"Disappointed?" he purred when he caught her staring.

"You haven't answered my question."

Shisui rolled his shoulder and took a step towards her. She tensed but his hand went for the reach of hair she had been smoothing out. His fingers curled into her hair, brushing it out. "I wanted to see you, but you make it sound like I have ulterior motives or need some extra specific reason for wanting something so simple. You know the whole reason I'm here, abandoning my quest for the wizard's brood is you. Why act so surprised?"

"I know what you're trying to make this sound like," Sakura said, pulling her hair away from his hands and moving to the closet where her handful of meager belongings hung or rested in a pair of shabby boxes.

She reached down and pulled a loose gray sweater from one of the boxes and a pair of black straight leg jeans from the other. She glanced back over her shoulder and sighed. Shisui hadn't moved.

"Look, I'm not as young as you think or as stupid if you believe your honey words are going to get you anywhere. I'm human, I know how your kind sees us."

He looked so honestly offended by her words. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't believe you're honest about being so interested in me, or at least not in the way you want me to think. You're a whole different race of biological beings that live in glittering castles and immortal flower fields of never ending beauty. You're iridescent creatures that bleed gold." She rolled the closet door back with the heel of her foot. "Humans are just a convenient plaything for you to find entertainment in. I've seen Fay delight in luring young girls in with pretty words never meaning a single breath of them. Humans are…we're…I'm…a dying life force. There's nothing attractive about that to someone like you."

"Who told you that?" Now the offense was in his tone. He sounded so appalled by her statement.

"Experience." She dug into the second box looking for a bag with jewelry.

"What a load of shit." He shifted his stance, fitting his hands over his hips like they belonged there. "Only the youngest and most foolish fay would ever see things so blandly. Dying life force? What makes you think we don't look at you and see a glittering, immortal soul so pure and strong no force of our makings could ever touch. We're made of magic and there's room for nothing else, but the magic that makes you up is so much wider and sweeter. Nothing can bind it, nothing could compel it. Bodies rot and flesh decays, but your soul will never die and that is…"

Sakura turned to look over her shoulder when his words trailed off and saw that his face resembled a boy's. She was struck with a memory of Sai before Shisui's face changed back to a better show of casual.

"I didn't know you were of the spiritual sort," Sakura huffed. "Didn't take you for the type."

There had been so few fay who even considered the existence of souls when Sakura had been made into a White Rabbit. She felt like a fool even more when she prayed for grace or favor in those moments when she felt sure her life would end. Immortals never had to ask for such a thing, at least not the ones she grew up alongside.

"Why are you so surprised? You're the same as I in this. What else could a rabbit do when running is all we have?"

Sakura found the bag, grasped it, and pulled it free. "I had more than just running. It would have been a slaughter otherwise."

"But you understand how terrible it was. You understand how much of a laugh it was for them to watch." His easy smile was back, but the glint in his black eyes was so much sharper than before. "I can tell. You're a mess and you hide it so poorly. I love it."

Sakura bit back a laugh and instead forced herself to glare. "Wow. You're coming on a little strong there. You and me…not going to work like that. You don't get to pretend we're the same and then insult me for it." She shook her head. "You can't even hit on a girl right."

"I'm not hitting you!"

She rolled her eyes, remembering how he had misunderstood the statement another time as well. "Uh, no. It's a term that means flattering someone you're attracted to. Don't take it literally."

She brushed past him and headed towards the bathroom, tossing her thinks onto the counter around the sink and reaching for the door to close herself in and take up some privacy. Shisui was there, toeing the threshold and ready to catch the door if she tried to close it.

Her voice was hard. "Move, I need to change."

"You admitted it though, just now. You admitted I l-"

Sakura shoved against him hard and the door followed before he could stick his foot in the way. She took her time getting ready and when she eventually emerged it was maybe half an hour later and the room was empty.

It was the middle of the day , meaning she slept in later again, but this time when she woke she felt better rested. There was still weight in the back of her body, reminding her of her limits, but Sakura felt like she wouldn't have to worry about the woman with ten horns once she came to call. Two more nights and then it was over.

Shisui had, for whatever reason, taken up position alongside Sarutobi who tolerated the invader better than Sai or Konohamaru. Sarutobi was old enough to recognize when it was beneficial to get over something, and his treatment of Shisui was evidence of that.

Sai asked her to help him practice his ink magic, and when she told him she wouldn't be joining him in their usual lessons, he asked that she just watch and provide him with critical feedback on his form. Konohamaru joined her in this. The pair of them sat on the wall to the courtyard gardens and watched as Sai worked to reduce the time to summon different creatures out of his ink.

"My grandfather can do that with crows, but he doesn't do any other animals."

"Sarutobi has a contract with Itachi, so he can borrow Itachi's magic to summon animals that Itachi has sway over. I've noticed that different courts are more particular to manipulating different animals, like wolves or foxes or cranes or bears." Sakura tugged at the leather cord of a rune necklace Ino had gifted her with a long time ago. "Sai's just extra special."

"It explains why he sucks so much at everything else."

Sai's ink tiger fell apart in a splash of black and the younger boy turned angry eyes on Konohamaru. The grandson just smirked and stuck out his tongue. A new tiger sprang up and reared, but a look from Sakura and Sai had it running laps while Konohamaru reveled in the strength of his 'boss.'

"Kid, go get me more water, I'm out," Sakura instructed, holding up her empty tumblr. She shook it once and the plastic straw rattled against the sides painted with cats.

Only for Sakura was Konohamaru content to perform the menial chore. Once he was out of sight Sakura left the wall to go stand beside Sai and give him some pointers she didn't feel like pointing out while Konohamaru was present. Sai seemed to appreciate it, and reflected on her suggestions before implementing them, but she still waited until there wasn't an audience.

"It's smoother now," he commented after another tip.

"Yeah, you're smooth with the delivery, but keeping your guard up is something you have to keep in mind as well."

Sai nodded. "I'll put it into practice tonight as well."

"You think we'll have to?" Sakura glanced upwards at the windows and searched for a peering face she sometimes caught staring down at her and Sai. There was none now.

"If not tonight, then tomorrow for sure."

"Then it's good we have the days in between their visits to rest. I don't have the stamina for anything other than running. Magic was always secondary."

"Is that why you're not practicing with me?" Sai asked.

Sakura nodded. "I want to play it safe." She grinned when she saw Konohamaru running up to her with her tumblr in hand. She greeted him halfway and thanked him extra for bringing a bat of pretzel sticks to snack on until dinner. Sakura took one between her lips to suck the salt off of and glanced upwards to see Shisui in the window. She cooly averted her eyes and bit off the end of her stick. She didn't look up again until they turned in for dinner that night.

Shisui didn't eat with them, but joined them as Sakura and Sai came back down to stand watch in the hallway. Sai had a deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards and Sakura carried the mat for the children's trading card game. Shisui hung back and the pair ignored them while they set up the game and played a few rounds. But after the first game, which Sai won, Shisui pulled up a chair to their table and sat to Sakura's left.

"What are the rules?" he asked, eyeing the mat.

"It's pretty straightforward," Sakura began, shuffling Sai's cards while he shuffled hers. There are three main types of cards: Monster, spell, and trap cards. There are others but those are the three main ones. Monsters are played in either face up or face down position on your own side of the field. If they're face up they can be in attack position or defense position. If they're face down you can only do defense position." Sakura handed him a few cards out of Sai's deck as she further explained the rules.

Sakura took the cards back and then asked Sai if she could show Shisui her own cards. Shisui compared the two and mused on how dark and ugly Sai's cards were. "That is what a fiend deck consists of," Sai answered evenly.

Shisui sent Sai a sideways glare before returning his gaze to the cards on the table. "Sakura's cards are much more pleasing to my eyes."

"I have a…fairy deck," Sakura admitted after a moment of hesitation. "It's not as strong as my Amazon Warrior deck, but I left that one behind when I left home. I didn't expect to be playing again. These are just my sentimental memorabilia. I thought they would be enough to win but I was mistaken."

"Your Injection Fairy Lily costs too much to maintain," Sai huffs.

Shisui picks up the card and holds it up alongside Sakura, smiling slightly. Sakura curls her lip and wrinkles her nose when she sees him grin.

"What?"

"She looks like you. You both have the same color hair." He tilted the card sideways. "She even sparkles like you."

"That's because she's holographic and a rare card," Sakura muttered, looking down at her other cards as she pretended she wasn't flattered to be compared to one of her favorite cards.

Shisui returned the card to her deck and Sai started to shuffle again.

"I thought you would be disgusted by fairy representation, even if it is wildly inaccurate," Shisui commented after a pause. He nodded to Sai. "The youth surely is."

The clock was ringing a quarter after eleven. There was time enough for one more round as the pair began to draw their respective hands. Shisui leaned in to see what she drew, still clueless to the value of her cards. There were several fairy cards.

"It's not so straightforward," Sakura admitted, watching Sai play a trap and a facedown monster. She drew a new card and played a magic card that raised her life points by 800. "I have no love for the fay who stole me away on misleading promises, but at one point in my life, when I was a true child, this had been what I dreamed of," Sakura admitted. She held out her cards to him in emphasis.

"Yet you spurned my advances."

"I know better than to believe in them."

Shisui pouted, glaring at the cards on the field as Sai smugly activated a trap and summoned a five star fiend without sacrificing. He attacked one of her monsters and Sakura was forced to flip her Mysterious Elf into face up defense position. Sakura drew and played another fairy monster that would raise her defense points every turn so long as it was on the field.

"You still have a soft spot for us," Shisui said.

"That's not enough to make me foolish again," she answered in a whisper as Sai destroyed her fairy monster.

It was a quarter till when Sai wheedled her down to her last few life points and at ten till Sakura lost for the second time that night.

Sakura left the room first, abandoning her cards where they lay, saying she would get them in the morning. Sai cleaned his up and met her by the front door.

"Shall we not keep them waiting?" she asked as he joined her and Shisui.

Sai didn't look at the man over her shoulder, but stepped closer to Sakura and nodded. Sakura missed the way Shisui rolled his eyes and made a sick face behind Sai's back.

There was already a thick roll of clinging fog when they stepped out. The strolled down to the last few steps on the front stairs and waited for the fog to reach them. Behind them the clock struck for midnight. Sai readied himself with his wand, ready and dripping at the tip with ink. Shisui leaned in, vibrating with magic ready to be unleashed, but he turned to look back at Sakura and grin.

"Are you ready, sweetheart?"

Sakura ignored the nickname and covered her face with her hands. She felt the magic build and when she opened her eyes and dropped her hands there was a mask already in place, accompanied by a chiffon silk dress of white and lace around her near bare feet. Shisui made a noise of pleasure alongside her before his own mask materialized.

The first woman appeared.

Sakura felt the energy in her chest and formed it into what she knew a sheath felt like. Closing her eyes and leaning back the sword emerged between her breasts and she pulled it free like King Arthur's sword from the stone. It came out shining and strong.

Shisui cooed out in a mocking way before leaping from the base of the stairs alongside Sai's ink tigers as a third and fourth woman emerged. Sakura was a step behind them until she saw the woman she wanted and then she was faster than either of them.

There was really only two of the ten women that were a challenge. The others were distractions more than anything. Sakura found the woman with ten horns and thrust forward with her glowing blade while Shisui tangled with the woman from last night. Sai fended off the other women with his ink beasts.

They weren't witches, and they weren't fey, but the women in horns were something in between. They were creatures of magic all on their own and they were ancient and undying. They had existed for centuries, bound by the same laws that kept them subdued and bound until one twelve day period each year. They were terrifying in their own way and Sakura knew better than to take them lightly. She could feel the woman she tangled with was stronger than all the others and the margin was greater than the ones in the past.

Sakura felt the magic in her hands keep her steady as she pivoted into a turn that caught the woman's trident mid reach. Sakura grunted and pushed up before turning and the woman had to do the same or risk losing her weapon. But like a gladiator, she was spry in her black robes and came back for Sakura with speed and agility. She was impressive enough that Sakura felt forced to move like a rabbit again.

'You're not made for fights, you should just run away,' the voice taunts in Sakura's mind when she misses an opening.

A second later she feels a cut open on her jaw as the sharp parts of the trident catch her skin.

Inside, deep where all the nasty things lived, Sakura knew it would be smarter to just run away. She had been unmade and remade like a caterpillar in a chrysalis before emerging as a butterfly. White or Black, Rabbits weren't meant to fight and everything that made them rabbits helped them do one thing only: run. It was the trials that gave Sakura the victory icons and it was the trials that taught Sakura how to use her new magic in a way that appreciated it better than anyone born with it could.

"You're a desperate thing."

"We'll learn desperation from you."

Sakura almost stumbled from the force of the memories. Her eyes were wide and red and gasping as the trident came down. Sakura caught it at the last second with her sword but one of the points cut across the back of her arm. She could feel it vibrating with the horned woman's own power and realized that her distraction had been more than just costly; it had been noticed.

'You need to run away now.' The voice was mean. 'Run and save yourself. What do you owe the old man?'

There was a memory of Karin falling. There was a cliff and there were dogs. They hadn't been friends then. Sakura would have been smart to let the redhead keep falling.

'Run!'

But Sakura hadn't let Karin fall. She had reached out and caught the redhead at the last second and together the two fended off the dogs and made it to the tower, losing a chance at a victory icon but winning something else.

Sakura screamed and it was deep like thunder all through her body.

When she swung the woman caught it with her trident but trembled behind the pressure. Her weapon came close to breaking and when Sakura forced it into the ground the pole cape open in a splintering gasp. The trident's head stayed buried in the ground as the woman dropped it and retreated. Sakura advanced and the woman countered with fire between her hands. Sakura didn't hesitate, she cut through it, feeling the flames shy away from her glittering skin. She was the Mistletoe sheath, there was no way she would burn.

There were black clouds and ask but Sakura cut through it all, making the surrounding area clear enough to see the retreating figure of the woman with ten horns. Sakura was screaming and there were fangs in her mouth, but she was just as much at war with herself as the woman in horns.

Her blade came down in a glowing arch of light and she roared through the swing. It cut her open like a bleeding fruit and she went down with a blood curling shriek before a pair of woman in horns descended upon Sakura. They had no weapons and Sakura readied to cut them open before their chains of gold caught her tight. She looked down and cursed at the seal under her feet, fed by the blood of the ten horned woman.

A trap.

Shisui and Sai were caught alongside her as the women hurried to lift up the fallen bodies of their sisters. The woman with one horn stood on her own, set apart from the other.

"What is she saying?" Sakura growled, hearing the chanting and fearing the curse.

The answer came in the sky. Sakura cried aloud when she saw dawn break faster than it should and the sun rise. The women fled before the light and the sun climbed high, higher, higher, higher, and peaked at the top of the sky before falling down again.

"She's advancing time around us," Shisui breathed in wonder. It was an amazing ability to warp space and time and no one suspected the weakest of all the horned women to have such an ability.

"That means…" Sakura's words trailed off as she remembered how little time their immortal bodies needed.

"The eleventh woman is coming," Shisui finished. He chuckled dryly, sounding out of breath. "You're not tired, are you?"

They would have to fight them all again plus the strongest horned woman yet.

"Fuck," Sai breathed, sounding only slightly troubled.

Sakura felt him touch the back of her hand as the sun bit into the far horizon and dragged dusk along with it. Soon the stars started to come out. Sakura reached back and caught Sai's hand in a reassuring hold before letting it go to return her sword to her chest and fill it with more power.

The witching hour broke and so did the seal that bound them. The fog came up to them in curling waves.

"Leave the eleventh woman to me," Shisui said, standing close to Sakura. His hands were shaking.

"I thought she gave Itachi a hard time last year?" Itachi was supposed to be stronger than Shisui.

"Don't think so little of me," he joked with a flirting wink. "I want to show off, there's no way I'll lose with you here. Rely on me."

"Don't forget about me," Sai interjected. But Sakura didn't miss the way he sounded winded. There was a limit to his magic's supply and he would reach it soon.

"Ah, look," Shisui chuckled, pointing overhead. Sakura glanced up and saw a growing swarm of blackbirds. She didn't know if they were from Itachi or Sarutobi. "We have friends."

"Who?" she breathed.

"The old man," Sai supplied, sounded more disgruntled than before.

"Heads up," Sakura cautioned. "They're here."

The fog glowed with a highlight of blue and Sakura felt ice in her blood. Soon.

'You should have run when you have the chance and you should run now.' The voice in her head was meaner and sharper before. Sakura wondered if that was because she was scared. Sakura was both tired and scared.

"I'm not going to run," she said out loud.

Shisui chuckled from beside her, touching his mask for luck. "Me neither."

The first woman came at them and Sarutobi's birds were a single force that dive bombed straight for the eyes. The avians picked and cawed and Sakura saw meat and blood as the birds took apart the woman with two horns.

Sai crafted a vulture with eight glowing red eyes and two sets of wings to claw at the other woman while a fusion of other mythical monsters emerged from his wand, more hideous and terrifying than any of the animals Sakura had ever seen him summon before. Sai's eyes were wide and his skin was taut as he put even more of himself into his magic. His creatures didn't go down easy and the sky split open to let free a Cthulhu like monster that ate up the four and five horned women.

Sakura laced her left hand with magic and spread it over her blade until it glowed gold with sunlight.

"Sing, Mistletoe!"

She screamed before slashing the air and sending an arc of gold through the air. It took down a woman with seven horns but behind her the woman with ten horns stood, using her sister like a shield as she heaved up her trident.

"This time won't be any different," Sakura growled, angry at last as he body burned with new energy.

There was no sign of the woman with eleven horns and Shisui was engaged with the woman of nine horn.

They clashed and Sakura was still shockingly hot with power like never before. It had been so long, so many years, since she felt so angry and so free to scream about it and destroy with her own hands. Her mouth was full of fangs all the way down the back of her throat.

Sakura swung and the force sent the woman back into a tumble. Her trident landed in the grass next to her several feet away. She struggled getting up again.

"Shit!"

Sakura turned at the sound of Shisui's voice and saw the woman with eleven horns run her sword through the woman with nine horns. The weaker sister gasped and shuddered before going too pale to see. The elder sister glowed with the new power and tossed her near dead sister off her sword and loomed, bigger, dark, more fearsome than the others. Her horns were curved and sinister as her eyes glowed like sick yellow lights between strands of stingy black hair.

"She's ugly," Shisui laughed, no trace of fear in his smile as he readied his hands for chirping birds and lightning.

Sakura heard another shout and turned to see Sai's ink beasts falling away as his concentration and power pooled into the last creature that separated him from the woman with ten horns. Another woman, one with two horns rose up from where she had been struck down. Sai tried to fend her off, but his concentration snapped and Sakura saw the trident thrust.

Sakura was there before it could catch Sai and she felt it land in her stomach and lift her up off her feet, high up, higher in the air like a flag on a pole. She grabbed at the base of the trident's head, trying to keep the points from going any deeper into her body, but she could feel the front of her dress turn red and wet. Someone was screaming her name.

'You should have run when you had the chance.'

Somewhere behind her there were chirping birds and the woman with ten horns burned up beneath her and Sakura felt herself drop. Something inside her was broken but she hadn't lost her sword. It was still in her hand, held by a death grip. Blood was on her lips.

'You should have run when you had the chance.'

Sai held her up and pulled her onto his lap as Shisui dropped down in front of her. Sakura cold feel the enemy looming close but both of them were surrounding her. They weren't pressing in on an advantage. She couldn't hear what they were saying but Shisui was touching her face, trying to wipe the blood away with one hand while pressing his free palm to the points on her chest where she had been pierced.

Rabbits had so little armor and all of it was on their face.

She heard Shisui shouting at Sai and Sai shouting at him to just stop the blood and she didn't understand why they were so upset over such a little thing because this was not the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She had run away from worse, she had stood up from worse, she had survived far worse, but they seemed so distressed at the sight of her covered in red. Was it the white dress that made it stand out so much?.She was in a fay body now, this was nothing.

"The eleventh," Sakura hissed, shifting where she lay and moving her head to glance behind Shisui in time to see the woman with eleven horns stab her sword into another one of her lesser sisters. "She's getting stronger."

"You need to call Itachi here," Sai hissed at Shisui. "I can't summon anything more."

"He won't come."

Sai was quick to snap back. "He will if it's for her."

But that didn't make any sense because Itachi didn't seem particularly eager to fight, so why would Sai say that. Did Itachi have history with this horned woman? Why would Sai think that Itachi would come back if it was for her.

Shisui looked ready to protest but then his face broke. "I-I can't."

Sai cursed.

Sakura pushed herself up more. "Shisui, your hands." She reached for them with her free hand and held them at the wrists. They were black like flesh from a fire. His hands were charred. "From the last attack?"

"I-I can't use it more than once," he admitted with a twist to his lips. Sakura guessed that Itachi didn't have such a limit.

"Help me up."

Sai sounded scared of the idea. "You'll bleed out. That was-"

"I won't have the luxury of such a neat death if you don't help me up. Sarutobi will fix this later, but I can last longer and you're both drained."

"You're hurt," Shisui argued, reaching for her arms all the same. Sai made a noise of protest but Shisui did as she asked and helped her up.

Sakura felt the breaks in her chest but she felt something else. She felt heat in her veins. Her blood was honey and when she breathed it came out that color. No more red, her dress turned a shade of gold at each piercing site. Even with the physical wounds Sakura felt oddly alive. Hurt, she felt more whole. The pain brought her a sick sort of clarity that made her eager for life.

She pressed her free hand to her chest and summoned her hawthorn branch. She held it over her head and poured energy into it until it bloomed and became a ornate French snap -ock fowler rifle from the 17th century. Where it wasn't wood it was gold.

The woman with eleven horns seemed to smell the new magic as she turned back towards them, the house behind her forgotten. She advanced and Sakura leveled the gun with her sword still in hand. The blade fit nicely under her rifle as the horned woman walked straight into Sakura's sights.

With a shot like thunder the gold bullet full of sunshine exploded from her gun's barrel and landed in the woman's face. There was honey and light and then woman screeched. Sakura wanted to smile, but what should have killed the woman only staggered her. She had the strength and life of two other horned women absorbed earlier. Sakura charged for another shot but it was slow loading.

"I'll keep her from you," Shisui promised, kissing her hair and taking off like a rabbit. There was no more lightning in his hands and he was hurt as well, but he put himself between her and the danger.

Sakura narrowed her sights and poured more of her magic into the chamber of the snap lock fowler until it was enough to shape a bullet, a trick few other fay could manage. All the other girls who won the Hawthorn Trials got arrows and bows. Bows fired faster, but there was hardly as much of an impact. Only one other girl could manage a pistol that made Sakura feel envy. Still, that girl hadn't survived the next trial, so Sakura had no right to such feelings.

"Sakura…" Sai behind her drew in closer, ready to catch her if she was going to fall. She wasn't.

"Almost."

She breathed deep and her red eyes flashed as the bullet fully formed. She leveled her gun again and when she could she fired. There was a horrible screech but then more screaming. It wasn't enough to bring her down. It almost made Sakura nervous. One bullet was supposed to be more than enough. A third charge would really come close to draining her.

"One more," Sai encouraged her.

Sakura scraped herself near dry, searching for more magic in places where she knew it settled and hid inside of her. She found what she could and she poured it into her gun. More and more, she kept searching and she kept finding more. She believed that there was no end to her magic, she pretended there was no limit, she pretended that she wasn't already close to being empty. There was no way she would ever be empty.

Sakura poured more of herself into the last bullet but held onto her sword. She pulled away the magic that was working to close up the holes in her chest and then there was enough for one last bullet.

Shisui was doing a fantastic job of darting around the horned woman like black lightning. Occasionally he would slash at her back with his knife, but she was nearly made of stone to his blade, so it did no good other than to distract her and piss her off. No wonder Itachi had a hard time with her last year.

Shisui saw something and ran too close, blade raised and coming down fast on one of her horns. It snapped free and she roared, catching him in the gut with her free hand to throw to the ground. Shisui tumbled through the grass and lay motionless.

Sakura screamed and fired her last bullet, the one laced with everything she had left. It burned like sunlight in the air and exploded in a solar flare of gold. She roared and staggered and burned, and stood again.

Sakura wanted to sob.

There was nothing left in her that wasn't keeping her standing. She was bleeding out of her middle and spent past her limits, but it hadn't been enough. She staggered and Sai caught her. Sakura was shivering.

He called her name and Sakura tried her best to hide how much she wanted to fall apart on him.

"It's going to be okay," he lied to her. He was human, he could do that.

She wanted to say something mean to him about it but he left her side and before she could stop him he stood out in front of her and pulled out the last of his ink tigers. It was stained red in places where it should have been black, a sign of how close he was to his own limit. He was spent, maybe more than her.

The woman with eleven horns seethed, shuddering from the last attack and losing one horn. Sai engaged her as confidently as he could and his tiger was a brilliant agent of ink destruction. Sai screamed and poured the last of himself into his ink creation. Sakura saw gold eyes bleed and one more horn break as the woman stagger so close to her end.

She reached out in what seemed like pain, but then she brought her sword down through the tiger and Sai shuddered with the recoil. He fell like a tree in the grass for her to step over on her way to Sakura.

Oh

Oh

Oh

'Run away!' The voice inside her was angry. 'You need to run away now. Look, look at what good it did to stay. Run away now and they'll never know. Better to be the coward that lives to see another day.'

The horned woman advanced and Sakura staggered backwards a step with an empty gun and her mistletoe sword, too heavy to lift anymore.

'You were made to run, so run away. Run away.'

Sai and Shisui were out in the grass and she didn't know for sure they were even alive. What would happen to them if she saved herself like they wanted her to in the first place? What about Sarutobi and Konohamaru?

'They're safe and sound in their house while you bleed out on their lawn you fool. Look what you give up for the undeserving strangers. They played you like a chess piece and you're going to die like a pawn.'

Sakura took another step back and the horned woman advanced. She was close. A few more seconds and she would be on top of her. Sakura had to run now if she wanted to live. She could do it. The woman wouldn't chase her. The woman would feed on Sai and Shisui and leave Sakura to escape.

'Run!'

Sakura remembered what it felt like to grab Karin's hand and what it felt like to drag a dead Kin through the sand. Never again.

Sakura screamed, breaking her sword and rifle down into pure magic before pressing them together. It hurt and bit like the devil to try on the fumes of her what was left of her power, but Sakura heaved the gun-blade with strength she shouldn't of had.

The woman was on top of Sakura and she had no time to aim or swing. Sakura just stabbed. She hit meat and she kept going, feeling the blood run faster out of her middle from the effort. The grass was red and gold from it. Sakura felt tears in her lashes and copper on her teeth. Her hand reached around the hilt of her new blade and found the trigger. One shot.

She looked up and saw their faces were inches away. The impact would take them both out.

Karin's voice was in Sakura's head, screaming for her, but Sakura remembered what it felt like to loose something more precious than her own life.

'I'll show you desperate.'

Sakura pulled the trigger.

Chapter

VIII

She didn't wake up in a bed, or at least not the type she was expecting. When Sakura turned there were no sheets but the stems and stalks of flowers bent under her movement. She inhaled deeply and reached out to feel soil under her nails when she grabbed for something. The taste in her mouth was of rotting apples.

The area was saturated with magic.

Sakura remembered the trident running into her gut and lifting her up like a victory flag. She pushed up on her elbows and looked down to see her red stained dress was gone, but there were bandages wrapped around her middle and a sort of button front denim shirt left mostly open. Her legs were bandaged too, in places she hadn't even realized she was hurt.

She looked down at her arm and saw a large square bandage and remember being shallowly cut there. She itched to take the bandage off and before she knew to stop herself Sakura and peeled it away. There was no more cut but a faint pin scar that would fade in another day's rest shined on her skin.

'Healing magic.' No wonder she was in a flower bed. The plants were assisting with her recovery.

There was a caw overhead and Sakura looked up in time to see on of the crows take off for the rest of the house. She was in the greenhouse by the look of it.

Moments later she heard the patter of footsteps and recognized the size at once. "Boss, you're alive!" Konohamaru shouted from the doorway before he ran the rest of the way to reach her. Sakura pushed herself up on her elbows to greet him and grunted only slightly when he hugged her shoulders.

"Konohamaru!" Sarutobi sternly chastised from the same doorway. "Let her go, she's still hurt."

The young boy dropped her like a hot potato and back up, face flushed in embarrassment. He giggled to himself and then wiped the underside of his nose with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Glad to see you up in time, boss."

She reached out to ruffle his hair. "Oh, what does that mean? What am I in time for?"

"You've been asleep for two days, it's finally the night of the party!"

"The twelfth night?" Sakura felt thrown and looked up to Sarutobi for clarification. "How does that make sense. We fought for two nights. If I slept for two nights that would mean I missed it."

"Not quite. The time around you was altered and changed so two nights worth of women came at you in a matter of hours, but once they were done away with time snapped back and you were no longer under their influence. You've been asleep since the tenth night, straight through the eleventh day and night. Today is the twelfth day."

Sakura stared up at the glass ceiling and saw a mid day sun.

"How are you feeling, Sakura?"

She touched her stomach and thought about the barely there dull throb of pain that wasn't worth mentioning in comparison to how clean her brain felt. She felt better than she had since-

"Sai and Shisui!" Sakura flinched hard, reaching to hold her sides. "The boys, where are they and are they alright? I saw them both fall before me, but I can't remember anything after that. What happened?"

Sarutobi offered her a hand and led her to a bench close by to sit down on. Konohamaru stayed close but kept a respectful distance as his grandfather helped her. Sakura could feel Sarutobi's magic seeping into her body and repairing what little remained of her wounds.

"Not nearly as much to worry about in their cases. Neither was run through with a trident and their last ditch efforts did not result in a point blank explosion that obliterated the eleventh horned woman for the rest of her night. Sai woke up yesterday, waited for you to wake, but went back to Danzo this morning to help prepare for tonight. He'll be glad to hear you've woken up I think."

"Shisui?" She remembered seeing him get hit and not standing back up again. She remembered him offering up himself to play a distraction, and she remembered how he fought alongside her, bleed with her, stayed with her. "Is he-is he fine as well? Where is he now?"

"Out and about on the grounds. I had to ban him from this room when he got too frustrating. All he would do is ask questions about you. I told him you wouldn't wake for another week and I'm surprised to actually see you up. I truly expected you to need the extra rest. You spent yourself."

"Yeah, but I feel great for it."

When Sarutobi looked at her oddly Sakura had to laugh.

"No, I mean my body is still sore and my bits hurt all over, especially my gut, but I feel better than before I got beat up. My head is not so much of a mess. I feel refreshed for once. Could you have guessed it?"

"How odd."

Sakura reached up and felt the leaves and twigs in her hair before pulling them free. Her fingers seemed to comb through the strands forever. She blinked at how much longer her hair was before remembering something like this happening before. A long time ago she woke up with hair down to her hips when the day before it had been only to her shoulders. Using so much magic wouldn't do it, but nearly dying would. This time her hair only reached her elbows. It hadn't been a big deal for her fay body to heal.

"Do you feel like attending tonight or would you prefer to rest?"

The question threw her off. "Attend what? The Party? Why wouldn't I still be going? I feel fine. I might even talk to some people." Sakura reached out with her hands and laced her fingers before popping her shoulders. She sighed in relief before settling back into the bench seat.

"Then I think it best of I insist on Shisui leaving ahead of us. I will call to have your friend come here and see to your arrangements. Her name was Ino, correct?"

"Don't pretend you don't already know, Sarutobi." Sakura grinned slyly. "The act doesn't flatter my image of you anymore."

Sarutobi watched her wearily and Sakura recognized why. Maybe she hadn't nearly died, but she had come close for his sake and he knew it.

There was no way Sai would have been enough to fend off the horned women. Even with Shisui it had been an ordeal. Maybe it would have been different if they didn't run out to meet the women head on, but no one wanted to wait inside and see if the seals did or didn't hold. How Sarutobi survived all the years up till now was a testament to Itachi's strength. No wonder he was a hunter.

"Would you like me to send Shisui in to see you now?"

Sakura thought about it and decided she didn't understand what she felt for the Uchiha anymore. He had nearly died for her last night and that made it hard to almost hate him. She needed more time to figure out how she felt about him and if he really was the friend she wanted to believe he was.

"No, tell him to go ahead and if I wake up I'll see him tonight. Don't tell him I'm awake." Sakura waved her hand in front of her face, grinning at Konohamaru. "That goes for you too."

Konohamaru made a zipper sign over his mouth and grinned slyly.

Sarutobi and his grandson left her to rest in the garden on her own after that and Sakura waited until the crows overhead cawed to signal Shisui's departure. It didn't come right away and actually took a good long while. She wondered if that was because Shisui took convincing.

Sakura almost closed her eyes again and laid down on the bench but she tasted rotting apples and sat up. Ino floated through the doors to the garden a moment later, her hair perfectly curled and eyes bright with accenting lines of blue liner. She wore a pair of floral shorts and a sweater, but looked like she was already ready to dance with the fairies.

"Damn," she breathed, seeing Sakura.

"I look that good, huh?" Sakura teased.

"Yeah, you do."

Sakura blinked, not catching the joke. She was wearing wrinkled things and her hair was loose and there were bandages everywhere. Was Ino just being kind?

But the blond took Sakura by the wrists and led her up the stairs into Sakura's bedroom and pulled off the sheets to the floor length mirror. Sakura saw what Ino meant in an instant. No wonder Sarutobi hadn't pressed her more on how she felt. Sakura couldn't remember a time her face looked so alive or her eyes so bright. Her skin was happy and all the edges of her were soft with the lingering effects of content fairy magic. Sakura looked like someone who swam in magic.

"What did you do?"

"I thought I died."

Ino narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, don't do that again, but damn girl…I'd hit that."

Sakura grinned out of the side of her mouth and leaned over to bop her head against Ino's. "You're sweet."

"And hella gay right now. Someone said something about helping you get made up for tonight, but I'm not going to lie, I just want to take all this off." Ino blinked and then shook her head, taking a step back.

Sakura frowned at the look of pain flashing across Ino's features. "Ino? Hey, you okay?"

The blond nodded and then shook her head again, trying to shed a layer of dizziness. "Yeah, I'm fine but… Whoa, that's some strong allure you're soaked in, girl."

"But I'm not using magic right now." Sakura wasn't in her fay form and using magic while human required so much focused concentration there was no way she could do it without knowing it.

"Yeah, it's not intentional, it's a side effect I think. It'll fade with time. Here, let me cast a dampen spell so I can help you out without accidentally jumping your bones." Ino murmured something else about not normally being attracted to girls so strongly, but pulled out her wand and cast the spell all the same.

Sakura felt it settle over her like the thinnest layer of flexible ice. She felt safe under it for some reason. Sakura tasted old apples in her mouth and glanced back at the mirror. She was more human now, but still soft and bright eyed.

Ino made Sakura shower and then after Sakura was done the blond parted and did Sakura's hair until it shone brilliantly in the fading light. There was little magic worked, but Ino had some of her witch things out on the vanity surface all the same. Something in the glass dish burned up and smoke came out, drifting like a long gray snake towards the doorway.

"Hang on, I'm going to get a dress for you."

Sakura sat at her vanity in a silk robe and panties, waiting for Ino to come back with the dress, but Ino didn't come back , instead Ino left out the door, down the hall and after a minute Sakura realized her friend had really taken off without explanation.

Sakura jumped up from the vanity and followed the scent of Ino, something strong enough to follow even without leftover rabbit senses. The trail led Sakura to the west end of the manor where Sarutobi kept all the doors locked. Ino was in one of those rooms, searching through an open wardrobe.

"Ino!" Sakura called from the threshold. "What are you doing here?"

"Your dress won't work with your knees still so scraped up."

Sakura glanced inside the room that was mostly covered up in sheets of white. It looked old and smelled like dust and mothballs and old spices. "Yeah…what does that have to do with this? Why are you in here when Sarutobi has the rooms on this end of the manor locked up."

"Like I'm going to let the old fart hold out on you after all the shit you've been through. I want the best and what we picked out at Dillards is Prom Trash. Here, we're going to be dancing with Uchiha tonight."

Ino stepped away and pulled something glittering with her. The long dress came out like a ghost, twinkling and mocking Sakura with memories of unending dances and balls and diamonds hanging in the sky and pearls and lace and white blinding skin so soft Sakura wanted to kiss those lips and heels on glass floors with pressed flowers in between and-Sakura stopped the voice before it could drag Sakura any further into those memories.

Sakura's voice was small. "That's a fay dress."

"No, there's a tag inside it. But yeah, it looks that nice, doesn't it?"

"What kind of spell were you burning in the glass bowl?" Sakura asked, stepping into the room and hesitating only once before she came up alongside Ino.

"A wishing spell. It led me here." Ino didn't say anything more than that but reached for Sakura's robes. "Try this one on. I think it was made for you."

Sakura looked up into the wardrobe as she peeled the layers of her robe away and let it pool around her ankles like liquid silver. There was nothing else in the wardrobe even remotely feminine, but Sakura chose to ignore that. However Ino got the dress, Sakura wouldn't ask. If Ino wanted to share she could.

It fit her like a glove and Sakura felt herself go light as the zipper closed her in. Something clicked and Sakura felt right. There was no magic to it, there were no rotting apples in her mouth, but it was a different kind of power called Confidence that made her light and tall and strong.

Ino pulled another sheet off another mirror and Sakura saw herself dripping in starlight and silver. The bodice was tight but not constricting, forcing her breasts up while the skirts flared out in beaded folds. She expected the skirts to be heavy, but when she turned they followed with little resistance, almost as if they were made of air.

Ino lowered a white fur coat over Sakura's shoulders and it was enough to make her remember other things.

"It's the sort of dress that makes men desperate.' The voice was back and mocking. 'It's the sort of dress little girls dream of wearing when they think themselves princesses.'

Sakura smiled at Ino and lied. "It's perfect. Now, do my hair."

The sun dipped and bled low into the sky as the girls cleaned and painted and styled. Sakura helped Ino with the girl's deep blue dress of full skirts and long slits. Ino pulled Sakura's hair back and choked it with pearl pins that held the elegant rolls up in place. Ino made her eyes dramatic but didn't dare do the same for Sakura. Sakura's eyes were already too bright.

Sakura looked into the mirror and heard the voice again. 'It's the sort of night when men realize how desperate they are for someone they could lose.'

Sakura tugged the lace, fingerless gloves on and pretended the voice wasn't there, because it didn't matter anymore. She woke up feeling great, she was going to stay that way. The black outline of her other self wasn't going to change that.

The girls climbed into an older model of a Rolls Royce and giggled about how Sarutobi had gone the extra mile to send a driver to the house to pick them up. It was twenty minutes to drive to Danzo's estate, but Ino begged the driver to go the long way around, letting the girls enjoy the ride and the peace for another forty minutes more.

"There are going to be so many Uchiha tonight. You've only seen Itachi and Shisui, but half the Uchiha court will be present tonight. It's to honor their contracts with all the local families."

"Not because the party is just that good?"

"They only have to come when summoned. There is no law requiring them to stay."

"What else are the old going to do with all their money?" Sakura chuckled.

"Spoil us pretty girls?" Ino cooed, petting back a curl of her honey blond hair.

She looked picture perfect for the night and it was more for herself and less for the fact that she wanted to be wanted by an Uchiha for a dance. It was such a honor to have a Fay want you when you were human, it seemed. Sakura didn't see the appeal anymore. She had played that game before, and found the ending not quite worth the suffering.

The lights leading up the driveway came up before the manor was even visible. Hanging lights stretched out for almost a solid mile before a turn revealed the manor behind a modest copse of trees dripping in hanging lights.

"Oh," Ino breathed, transfixed.

Sakura could only smile for her friend, thinking Ino's happiness was much more lovely than all the lights and dazzling elements of the old man's party.

The car fell into a line and inched along before the girls were up by the front. Ino slipped out first and Sakura followed. A man closed the door behind them and pointed out the way for them to follow. It wasn't hard, the lights were direction enough.

"Sakura."

The two girls stopped before they could even remove their coats at the coat check. Itachi was standing by the staircase balcony that overlooked the grand hall below. Days ago it had been full of sitting furniture, not it was a dance floor.

Ino murmured some sexual innuendo under her breath before grinning and moving to check her coat ahead of Sakura. Ino paused before leaving and then laughed, calling to Sakura that the dampening spell was over by midnight. Sakura cursed her best friend playful as Itachi walked over.

"You're well," he breathed, voice soft with unbelieving. He looked her over and Sakura wondered if he was looking for injuries or just admiring her. There wasn't a lot to see until she did away with the coat, so she pulled it tighter.

"I woke up this morning but wanted the time on my own. I asked Sarutobi for that. Did he not tell you?"

"He mentioned scarce little, only that you were well and not to worry. Shisui seemed incensed with that precious little to go on, but I was quite annoyed as well when I received no further details. I thought Sarutobi would trust me at the very least."

"I'm here now," Sakura conceded.

"You look well."

Sakura rolled her eyes and ignored the butterflies in her belly. "I wasn't horribly disfigured. Why do you sound so relieved?"

Itachi curved a single finger and brushed it up under her chin. "I heard too many terrible details and I remember too vividly how you trembled on my lap last you practiced fighting with me."

"Not my best moment, let's agree on that."

"Not your worse, either. I didn't mind."

Sakura felt dangerous with the way Itachi watched her. He was dressed well in a formal tux of black and white, hands gloved, hair pulled back tight, eyes bright and teasing. Sakura thought he felt looser around her and didn't want to point it out for fear of scaring Itachi back into his stiffer self.

'Desperate men.'

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek and tore her eyes away from the Uchiha in front of her in time to catch sight of a trio of Nara heading to the coat check. Sakura recognized Shikamaru and his father and startled to remember that there were other people in the room, in the the world aside from her and Itachi.

"Did you have any trouble defending the fort here?" Sakura asked, steering the conversation back to topics she felt safer in. "I was a bit overwhelmed with the might of the horned women on that last night. I shouldn't have underestimated them."

"I heard you did better than the other two."

"You heard wrong." Sakura reached up for the front of her fur coat and eyed the coat check. "Speaking of which I think I should find them so they don't think I'm dead."

Itachi held out his hands to take her coat and Sakura turned out of it, letting the fur thing slid off her back and expose the bare shape of her back, spine and shoulder blades rolling sensually out of the coat. When she turned Itachi was still watching her, coat folded up in his arms.

"I'm glad I was right about him, though I don't see how I ever could have been wrong."

Sakura blinked. "What?"

"Shisui. I told you he wouldn't betray you."

Sakura nodded, walking with him over to the coat check. "Yes. I'll admit that after watching him almost die to keep me safe I'm a lot more inclined to trust the guy."

She kept her lips still as Itachi registered her coat and kept the card for her hanger. When she reached for it he slid it away in his pocket, claiming she could get it later at the end of the night when it was time for both of them to return to the same place. His voice was melted and husky in her ears.

Sakura felt the butterflies turn to bats in her belly and didn't doubt her face was a little red.

He took advantage of her flustered state to drape her arm over his and lead her to the stairs, tugging her close when the walked across the balcony. She could smell the scent of him and it was the scent of moist earth under a pine tree in winter. He was crisp and clean and the closer she was the more he began to smell like wood fire. She remembered his red eyes and the flames from when he chased her.

Of course.

Sakura moved her eyes and saw across the floor Ino dancing with an Uchiha. Her partner couldn't have been anything or anyone else. He was dark haired like Itachi and unmistakably fay. Not far from her Sai leaned against the wall, face blank and eyes dull. He looked up like he felt her eyes on him and she expected him to smile, or maybe loosen the forlorn expression, but she only saw his eyes widen and something sad come into them.

Itachi pulled her closer as the crossed the middle of the stairs and advanced towards the bottom. She felt him bend and his lips were by her ear. "I don't know who else you promised a dance to, but the first one is mine."

"I don't dance-" Sakura tried to say, but the words were so soft and breathless she doubted he heard her.

She felt light when he tugged her onto the dance floor. There was already music and not as many bodies as she suspected. It was too easy to slip in between them and follow Itachi's lead. He was close and pulled her closer, on hand at her waist, fingers spread wide, the other holding her hand out. She felt her body move with the memory before her mind could catch up.

'This is how you make them learn what it feels like….'

Itachi seemed to radiate with a night's worth of light, the cosmos glittering in his eyes as he danced her across the polished floor. Her heels were mute chimes only she could hear as they passed between fey and mankind alike.

There were so many Uchiha that Sakura wondered if the whole of Itachi's home court had attended. Many of the Uchiha wore masks or half masks, a thing fay did when they believed their beauty too overpowering for mortals. It was a show of vanity and nothing more.

Sakura feels Itachi tug on her hand when she's looked away too long. She grins, thinking the action childish. He's like a boy that can't stand his friend looking to anyone other than him. He pulls her closer and lowers his face. It's harder to look at anything else with his lips so close to her face. Sakura inhales and smells more woodsmoke. It makes her woozy.

"Do you trust my cousin now? He seems to adore you." Itachi's lips are on her jaw, her voice in her ear. She feels him kiss her skin and shivers. "Did you see him yet? He's been watching us since we stepped out onto the dance floor but you're in my arms now."

"Itachi." It's a weak word and she doesn't know what she wants it to mean when she says his name.

She wants to ask him why he sounds so strange to her, but she enjoys it too much. She bends her neck a bit to the side and Itachi doesn't disappoint, kissing it greedily.

"It's so remarkable." His words are breathy as she struggles to breath. "I've always wanted this pale flesh, I've been bred to chase it, but now that you're here in my arms all I want to do is spoil you. Is this why they made us run after you, because you were such a prize? I'm so happy right now. I almost have everything I never knew I wanted."

She wants to tell him he's getting ahead of himself, that he's getting carried away and she's not so easy to take, but it's been too long for her to feel this good and she just wants to hear him tell her sweet things until she can't hear anymore. His words are stirring dangerous things within her.

'They will learn to feel desperation at last,'

Behind them the bells for midnight chime and Sakura is at a loss for where the hours in between went. She meant to find Sai and Shisui, she meant to make sure they were okay and ask Sai why he watched her so sadly. She meant to tell Shisui she trusted him now and she wanted to be friends. She meant to tease Ino about her dancing. She meant to find Sarutobi.

Itachi kissed her jaw and she felt herself shiver as the chimes for twelve finished and faded away.

"Wait," Sakura said, sounding as dizzy as she felt.

The fairies will dance forever. They'll dance you to death. She remembered this, but this wasn't a fay party and this wasn't a random fay, this was Itachi and Sarutobi was there in the corner. She saw Sai watching her and there were others she recognized as she spun in Itachi's arms. She was supposed to be safe. This was the victory party. She woke up and felt better than she had ever before. There was no taste of rotting apples in her mouth. There was no magic in the air aside from the spell of Ino's breaking up and off her skin.

Ino's spell was almost gone.

"Itachi, this isn't you," Sakura tried to say, thinking it funny how haughty she had to have been to think he meant his words. "Itachi you need to remember yourself better."

"It's a simple allure, not heaven's magic, Sakura," Itachi chuckled. "I've seen my fair share of allure's shining far brighter and I'm not one that can be swayed with something so trite. You think I didn't feel this way before I even saw you tonight?"

"You're just saying that to me."

"Let me kiss you so that you may know my truth."

Sakura chuckled, shaking her head and looking away. Itachi tugged on her hand, the one he held, and she looked back up at him and grinned out of the corner of her mouth. "Having only Danzo for company must have made your stir crazy." She saw Shisui and started to tug away. "I need to see the others now. It's been more than just one song."

Itachi held her tighter and swayed away from where she could see Shisui. "Not yet."

"Itachi!" She wanted to get away but Itachi held her closer. She smelled more of him and it still made her dizzy.

"Not yet."

"What are you talking about? When were you planning on letting me-?"

The floor under them shattered and out of it there was a massive cloud of ash and black that choked out the world around them. Sakura felt it roll over her as Itachi tugged her closer off her feet. She heard the screaming and then the cries of pain. There were people running through the smoke and something taking them down. Someone was calling for her. She heard her name and Itachi growled. Sakura looked and saw his hands were claws around her, darkly colored at the points. His fangs were out as well.

The smoke turned to feathers and the crows flew away, leaving behind a scene of chaos. The horned woman stood around the room, all twelve of them. Between the eleventh and tenth stood Danzo, looking bored. Sakura turned to look out across the dance floor and gasped at all the Uchiha bound in silver chains that smelled like burning iron.

"What?" This couldn't be happening.

"Do you have that one?" Danzo asked Itachi.

Itachi tugged her to his chest and leaned his head down to shield her. "She's mine. We had a deal."

Sakura felt parts of her body shake in shock. Her brain was releasing chemicals for fight or flight but Itachi kept her pinned close to him. There was nowhere she could go and nothing she could do other than blandly parrot the words she didn't believe. "Deal?"

'Desperate men.'

"Danzo!" Sai stood out from between two horned women, glancing at Sakura and then his old master. "You said she wouldn't be harmed."

"Sai?" He was alright. There were other who stood out looking unharmed, but all were looking to Danzo for direction. His network of spies stood at attention. They were his army.

Danzo flipped his hand over his shoulder as if the question was a fly to bat away. "She shall not be harmed too terribly, I'm sure. Itachi doesn't seem the sort of beast to break his own toys."

"That's not what you told me." Sai breathed, looking to Sakura with more emotion than she remembered him capable of. "She was supposed to be free."

"That was before I knew how key a piece she was. No, Itachi has done well enough to earn his reward. He can keep the girl. I've got what I want. There has to be an Uchiha here who can tell me where the sleeper is."

Sakura remembered the old giant at the end of the world sleeping deep and far away. It wasn't the Uchiha looking to wake him for power, but the alchemist Danzo. With so many Uchiha bound in iron, what was left of their courts was a ghost force. The other courts could…

"Danzo!"

Sakura turned and saw Shisui free from the iron chains, breathing heavy. He had been too fast to be caught. Behind him the humans were frozen in time. Sarutobi and Ino remained still as stone while ivy grew around their ankles. More and more green swallowed the humans up. Sakura couldn't find Konohamaru.

"This was a trap." Sakura breathed and looked up at Itachi who bent over her. "You knew."

"Itachi," Shisui seethed, sighting his cousin. "Let her go!"

Itachi chuckled low and it was more a purr to Sakura's ears as he pressed her closer. "You're outmatched and outnumbered. Even if you were my equal the horned ladies would kill you." A bit of the humor left his voice. "And don't think you could take her even if that wasn't the case. I've given up too much to not have this at least."

"Itachi, Sarutobi and Ino, what's happening to them?" Sakura's eyes were wide as Ino continued to be swallowed by green. She was still so lovely between all those leaves.

Danzo left his spot between the woman and stepped closer to a figure choked in ivy. Sakura remembered it was Sarutobi under all those leaves and grimaced at how little there was left to tell him apart from the others.

"The humans will not be done any harm, but I can't have them free while I set my plans into motion." Danzo leaned in closer to the ivy as he spoke, keeping his back to her as he ignored Itachi and Shisui. "Madara is finally vulnerable and any one of these fools could warn him of my aims. They'll not be disturbed until we see to the end of my goals. Is that not our plan, Sai? Behold, your revenge is before you."

Sakura looked to the younger teenager and struggled to find a scrap of anger at his betrayal, but all she could feel was hurt when she looked at Sai. She had trusted him, cared for him, and fought alongside him. She had thought he died after he spent the last of his magic to shield her. She couldn't not trust him.

Yet, here they were. Sai had betrayed them, had been planning to betray them from the beginning.

"You look shocked, but Sai told me you knew we were in communication. Did you think I was concerned for the youth?" Danzo asked, tone mocking. He eyed Shisui who circled on the other side of the room, ready to leap. "No, this night was years in the making. Is that not right, Itachi? I tried so hard for so long to win you over and now I've done it."

Sakura turned around in Itachi's arms, as much as he would let her, and looked between Sai and Shisui. Sai looked sick where he stood, mere feet from her. Shisui was still crouched and taunt in the far corner. He was watching Sakura, looking for an opening.

"The horned women will take care of the remaining intruders," Itachi commented, reaching up to pet back Sakura's hair in love. "There is no more need of us here. Are we permitted to leave?"

"You're not taking Sakura anywhere, bastard!" Shisui seethed.

Danzo waved them away, turning back to look at Sarutobi's ivy clad self. "See to it. If you're to deflower her you might as well do it where I can neither hear nor see you both."

Sakura tensed in Itachi's arm, sick from the words all of a sudden. Shisui screamed curses from the other end of the room even as some of the horned women began to move.

Itachi hummed something soothing and tugged at Sakura to come with him but she struggled. He cooed in her ear and laughed about how she struggled when there was no point. She shouldn't want to get away, there was no way he wouldn't worship her and love her in her own time.

"Don't listen to him, he's no mind for romance. Come now, dearest, don't struggle," he chuckled.

Sakura twisted, ready to bite if she had to, but it was an ink tiger that came between them. Itachi hissed at the iron nails in the tiger's paws when it tore the pair apart. Sakura stumbled free and Sai was beside her, wand ready, body trembling.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked in wonder, not understanding why he would choose to save her now, to switch sides when it was least opportune for him to do so. He had nothing to gain if he switched to the losing side now.

"Don't forget to look at me too. I'm not fay like them, but I am not worth forgetting. I'll show you." Sai keeps himself between Itachi and Sakura, even as some of the horned women turn to face him.

Itachi holds the part of his arms that bled and wiped the blood away. His cuts healed, but slowly. He watched Sakura stand behind Sai like it was a personal betrayal. When she didn't move back to him his clawed hands trembled.

"Sai!" Danzo turned and the look on his face was probably the first emotion Sakura ever saw on the old man. "What is the meaning of this. Did Sarutobi get to you, too?"

"Hardly," Sai bit, glaring back over his shoulder. "I've just found my own voice this time. I'm not here to follow you or Sarutobi. I'll go as I please and do what I want, and right now I want you to leave me and Sakura alone."

Sakura reached for her chest and felt the small power from deep inside. Her icons were still so faint. You couldn't see them on her skin but she could feel them. It probably wasn't enough for her to summon her Yarrow Wand just yet. There was little she could do to help.

"Take her and escape, but where will you go, what will you do?" Danzo mocked. "I gave you purpose. You are nothing without me, boy."

"You're outmatched, Sai, even with the Black Rabbit," Itachi added. His eyes turned soft on Sakura. "You resist now and there is no going back to days of peace. You're not a war fay. You deserve to be spoiled for once. You've done enough, stop running."

He took a step, reaching out and Sakura felt the butterflies again.

But Ino and Sarutobi and Konohamaru were still in ivy.

"Shisui," Sakura called. She saw him look to her and listen. Her eyes met his. "Run far."

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but there was no nonsense in her words and a second later he was sprinting for the door. Itachi snorted even as Sakura took a stance.

Danzo huffed in annoyance. "Enough of this, ladies, take them."

Itachi growled, springing and ready to get to her first but Sakura was faster. She grabbed Sai and pulled the Foxglove stick out from her breast and shook it until it became a silver bell in a wreath. There were Unicorns and skulls etched in the metal and it was angry with unnatural power. Sakura raised it high and screamed before swinging it down and making the bell inside clang.

"By the power of the Foxglove Harrowing Bell, I banish thee, I banish thee, I banish thee!"

The shock was instant. The horned women were block away from the first wave of force and Sakura swung again to force Itachi and the other remaining fay in the room to collapse. Even Danzo staggered.

It was the last of her victory icons. The one she swore she would never use again. The power was heavy and loud all around them. She knew it stretched far and prayed Shisui had enough luck to be too far to be crippled by it. Fay hated bells, no matter what kind. Most silenced the bells they heard, but even if they didn't there was very little a normal bell could do to harm a fay.

Sakura's foxglove bell was not so normal. Naruto had called it an evil banishing bel and told her that it was how they would be able to find her. It was made to banish evil and it was almost too powerful an item to be allowed in the games, since it forced away the fay as well.

Sakura swore, swinging it once more and feeling the stripping feeling as Itachi screamed from where he lay on the floor. It was tearing up his brain and soon he would be forced to flee.

Sakura stayed human, didn't dare touch her fay magic of transformation, but forced her arms to swing. "I banish thee, I banish thee, I banish thee, I banish you!"

There was a wave of yellow light and Sakura heard the bees humming in her ears. Itachi was passed out on the floor, the women were gone, and the few remaining operatives who spied for Danzo like Sai had were struggling where they stood. Even Sai seemed weak from it.

Sakura let the bell fade away and donned her rabbit mask before reaching for Sai and shifting him up onto her back. She could smell Shisui and knew he wasn't far, but far enough. She would find him. She could run faster than any of them, even with Sai on her back

Her brain was heavy from the images she saw and the memory made her sick. 'Desperate men will be what breaks this war in our favor, Sakura. Look at what you made them do. What a treasure you are.'

"Come on Sai."

Sakura took off running, leaving the chaos behind them.

* * *

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small  
And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all  
Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

 **And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall**  
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call  
And call Alice, when she was just small

When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go  
And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low  
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead  
And the white knight is talking backwards  
And the red queen's off with her head  
Remember what the dormouse said  
Feed your head, feed your head

-Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit Lyrics

* * *

There we go, Happy Halloween guys!

A while back I did a little short story for UchiSaku week called If You Go Chasing Rabbits and this novel came from that original idea of black and white fay courts playing a game with rabbits.

I hope you liked it. Reviews feed my soul!

-Vesperchan

 


	2. Red Fox: Drumming Song 1

Previously: White Rabbit (Raise it up)

* * *

**Red Fox: Drumming Song**

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That starts when you're around  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

Sakura reviewed her travel bag of toiletries and removed a switchblade. She held the spring loaded pocketknife up before using it on the seam of the wallpaper. Behind it she found the original wall with all the distressed seams and marks from tenants past. As she suspected, there was a patch of white plaster over the hallow sound of the wall.

Sakura put her knife away and used her fist this time. The plaster gave way like loose snow, raining down in thick chunks over her knuckles. Sakura shook it off and reached inside, fingers grasping for substance until they found a brick shaped box.

There was still plaster between her fingers but she ignored it as she slipped the box out and palmed it. It was just as small as she remembered it and wondered how that was possible. She had been much younger when she hid away these memories from fairyland.

' _Put away these foolish thoughts, remove anything that would cause you to be need to put away the things that lead you to these lies_.'

Lies.

There was a creak down the hall and Sakura dropped the box into her bag and shouldered it. The plaster would take too long to completely remove, but Sakura sweat most of it away, under the bed, with the back of her hand and then pressed the wallpaper back into place. The old glue stuck, but only just barely. In a few minutes, hours, maybe days, it would roll right back like a bad habit and the evidence would be visible.

That was fine. She didn't plan on coming back anytime soon.

Sakura waited by the window of her old bedroom and held her breath. There were footsteps in the hallway coming close and closer. Sakura closed her eyes to make the sounds sharper in her ears. Her heartbeat slowed as the door creaked open and a figure looked in.

The room was dark but the light switch was right next to the door. From underneath the windowsill Sakura watched as her mother glanced into the child's bedroom, sighed, and then closed the door again, never noticing the plaster or the cut in the wall. If the dust was anything to go by, no one had been in this room since Sakura last left it.

As the footsteps faded Sakura pulled herself up onto her window sill while opening it with her free hand. It creaked awfully once it got to the halfway point, so Sakura had to stop it there and shimmy out onto the slanted roof or risk summoning her mother back.

Once outside, Sakura readjusted her pack and closed the window. Climbing down the sycamore tree to the front yard and following the driveway to the street was impossible to mess up after having done the same thing hundreds of times in the past.

This time was different though.

When she got to her car Sai was slouched down in the passenger's seat looking tired and frail. Shisui was spread out in the backseat, sicker looking still. It would be a while before he could push himself again.

"Sakura?" Sai whispered her name, more from lack of energy than from wanting to wake the sleeping fay. He reached for her weakly and she handed him her pack instead.

"I got the things I needed. Come on, I'll take you somewhere we can rest."

"Home?"

Sakura shut the door behind her and buckled up. Through the trees in her rearview mirror she could still see the slanted roof she had just climbed down from. The yard was still shabby looking but hearty with happy weeds. It was odd to look at anymore.

"No, not home, but it's somewhere we can rest." She reached over and pat his hair back. "Try and rest. I'll carry you in if I have to."

Sai nodded, sagging further in his seat and closing his eyes. "Mmm, okay. But do me first before you worry about _him_."

Sakura glanced over her shoulder before starting the car and pulling out onto the main road. Shisui didn't, which meant that none of the other fay Sakura had knocked out mere hours ago were up either. She would drive until she couldn't drive anymore and pray that it was enough to separate her from them.

"Deal," Sakura answered in a whisper.

* * *

Her stunt bought them a day, but a day was all she needed to pack up her life in the back of her car and make tracks. She was too well equipped with the ability to disappear from one place into the next; sometimes that meant a new world altogether, and sometimes that meant the Motel 6 of the interstate highway where the rooms were cheep and the questions scarce.

There were things she grabbed from Sarutobi's manor stashed against the far corner and a pile of books Sai chose to take with him, but they had been so rushed with worry there hadn't been time to pick up everything Sakura would have wanted. She only had time and room for the things she needed. Her books had been left behind, along with the handful of framed photos of her and Ino.

God, what had become of Ino?

' _God's not going to talk to you tonight, much less answer such a silly question._ '

As she sifted through her things she realized she was missing PJs should could actually be seen in. For the foreseeable future she would have to share close quarters with two other guys, and the nightshirts she owned, while comfortable, were a little too risqué for her comfort level.

She had taken her phone charger too, but had been too afraid to turn on her cell and too scared to smash it. She didn't know what to do.

"Shisui is waking up."

Sakura looked up from her things to see Sai standing stiffly in front of the only full sized bed in the room. It was a good sign and a terrible sign all at once. Shisui waking up meant Itachi was waking up, and Sakura didn't want to be foolish and assume he wouldn't track them down once he was able. Still, she was eager to hear from the Black Rabbit that had almost given up his life for her once.

Shisui rolled over in bed and reached for the fabric front of his shirt, pulling at it and tugging it away from his neck. His eyes cracked a second later and he stilled before shooting up like a bullet from a gun. The harsh edges of his body went rigid until he saw her and then relaxed.

"Where?" He wavered a bit where he sat, head bobbing back and forth as he struggled to regain equilibrium. Sakura watched as he blinked and attempted to forces his eyes to focus.

"It's not much to look at," Sakura answered, standing behind Sai's shoulder. "We're in a motel room. We're about a hundred miles from Carnation manor and Danzo."

Shisui nodded before his eyes settled into focus and narrowed in on Sai. Sakura saw red and moved before Shisui's hands could wrap around Sai's neck. The Uchiha lunged and Sakura caught his hands, falling on him and dragging him down to the bed where she wrestled him into submission. He gave in almost as soon as he felt her around him, but the glaring and angry sounds didn't stop.

"He knew!" Shisui hissed, changing his direction and instead pressing himself closer to Sakura, glaring at Sai all the time. "He was working for Danzo and he was prepared to sacrifice you to him. What's he still doing here? Why haven't you killed him yet?"

"Sai isn't our enemy, shhh, stop it, don't look at him like that." Sakura squeezed Shisui and pulled him to her like she would an angry cat. He was still agitated but she could feel him settling into her arms and calm, little by little. "It's not Sai's fault. He didn't plan any of it. He was just a pawn."

"Pawns can be dangerous."

"Sai helped us, he had nothing to gain and everything to loose but he still chose us over the only family he's ever known." Sakura looked up at Sai even as she pet Shisui's hair down. "He made that choice at the end."

Shisui's hands spread wide around her elbows and gripped her tight. "He was working for Danzo and the old alchemist is known for brainwashing his spies. You can't trust him. He's lying to you."

"I trust him."

"There is no reason to trust him, don't be stupid. Please, let me kill him."

Sakura saw Sai's shoulders hike a fraction but he never ran or reacted more than that. Sakura watched him and he watched her back, black eyes unblinking.

"I trust him."

"Why."

"I don't have a reason you'll accept, but I choose to trust him, and you're not allowed to hurt him." She squeezed his shoulders and felt his eyelashes shudder against where they rested on her shoulder. "Besides, you're still weak and need to rest."

He groaned and Sakura moved to lay him back down while Sai retreated to his corner of books to make himself scarce. Sakura wouldn't let Shisui do anything to him, but that didn't mean Sai wanted to hang around the Uchiha.

Shisui complies with a bit of prompting and Sakura manages to get him under the covers. His eyes are more focused but start to go fuzzy as Sakura pushes his head to the pillows. "Why do I need so much rest…what happened at the end?" He takes a deep breath and then his eyes don't open anymore, though Sakura knows he is still awake and waiting for her answer.

"That was me. I used a banishing bell, the Harrowing class."

Shisui's eyes snapped open and he nearly sprang up from the bed. Gone was the black of his irises, both eyes were spinning with the red pinwheel designs his fay court was known for. "You what?"

Sai looked up from the boo he was reading but didn't say anything. Sakura doubted he had ever heard of such a thing and wanted to know what the big deal was for Sakura to have used a banishing bell of such a forbidden class.

"I'm not fay, it doesn't bring me any danger." Sakura tried to play it off by waving a hand over her shoulder but Shisui caught to way those same shoulders stayed up high. Her body language betrayed her.

"It might not have been a danger for you to use, but that doesn't change the fact that it was Harrowing class. What did you have to give up?" His eyes were searching, fading back to black.

Sakura looked away and caught Sai staring. "Harrowing means that the magic is fueled by sacrifice. The cost of magic is payed by the user giving something up that is equal to the power of the magic they wish to preform."

"That's different from fay magic." It came out as a statement, but somehow, Sai's words sounded like a question.

It's easier to look at Sai and answer his statements like they're questions than it is to look at Sai and feel the weight of his blatant questions.

"Your magic comes from you, Sai. You were born with magic inside you, right next to your soul. I wasn't. The Fay are born with their magic interwoven into their very soul. You can't take magic from them without killing them, not like you can with a wizard or sorceress. Changelings …if they don't have magic, they are mutated to make room for the magic. But there are ways in which we can use magic that isn't even a part of us. It's useful because even if we're spend and have nothing left, we can still pay to use that power. Some pay in pain, some pay in memories, some pay in meat, some pay in blood, some pay in promises, and some pay in sacrifice."

Sai blinked. "I did not know this, but I had no need to know such a thing before."

Shisui glared at the younger male through his lashes and reached for Sakura's wrist, running the pads of his fingers along the underside of her veins. "I've been out for so long, I can feel it. That was no small power."

Sakura didn't meet his eyes.

"What did you give up?"

After a pause Sakura's hand reaches for the fabric over her heart. The tattoos are there, her victory icons, but not in the same way she remembered them. At the bottom of them all was a wishbone that protected her memories and mind. She had told Itachi that much, but she hadn't told him the other thing it did.

When she checked her icons days earlier, when she first changed out of that silver dress and heels, she saw the broken wishbone split at the joint into two uneven halves. The memories she had stolen were now free.

"One of my icons broke. It no longer works."

"Which one?" His eyes look to her shirt as if he could see through the fabric to the marks above her heart. "What does that mean for you?"

'You want to tell them what you did? What a horrible friend you were to the people who were willing to die for you?'

'I was protecting myself!'

"Protecting yourself from what?" he asks her and Sakura is startled to realize she spoke the last thought out loud. Her face heats and she wants to look away, but Sai's staring at her now too.

"I'm sorry, but I can't talk about it right now. I need some time to process it I-"

She feels her words still in her throat and she hates herself for how the taste of rotting apples makes her feel sick, but when she looks up, she sees it's only Sai creating something out of ink. He was in charge of sending out ink cats and birds to watch around the motel and every few hours they needed to be redrawn. She hadn't flinched when he did it the first few times and had all but ignored the taste of magic.

"If you need time We'll wait. I understand. You can't go back to the home of Sarutobi, but I can take you to my home in fairyland where you will be safe from their reach. In the morning I will take you there and-"

"Danzo has already taken it by now," Sai interrupts.

Shisui glares hotly and the younger boy. "What do you mean? A mortal can't just take my lands so easily."

Sai shrugged, sending his ink cat off. "No, but Itachi could. We didn't have to do anything."

The mention of Itachi is enough to silence Shisui and infuriate him all at once. There is no mystery on the balance of power between the two cousins. Itachi is the stronger one and it's not hard to imagine him taking something over that once belonged to Shisui. What was difficult to imagine was Shisui taking that thing back. His lands were lost to Itachi and he had no way of overpowering or outclassing his cousin. Shisui was fast, he wasn't strong.

"What else did Itachi take?" Sakura asks, knowing Shisui wants to, but can't form the words himself.

"Not many other places. Danzo locked most of the other manors and castles in the Uchiha court up in pocket times."

"He shouldn't be able to do that, he's not a wizard!"

Sakura felt something sick in the back of her throat at the sound of Shisui's words. He was right, this was supposed to be impossible for Danzo who was not a magic user like Sarutobi. Alchemists used magic by manipulating the elements already pre existing in nature. What Danzo pulled off was more than any alchemist had ever been capable of.

"Sai?"

The boy looks up from his books for her.

"Is Danzo a changling?"

"I think he was when he was my age, but I do not know that for sure. I only know that he has icons as you do. I do not know where he got them from or even what they all do."

Sakura can't breath for a second as she struggles over the memory of Mito's hands in her body and the trials and the transition from fully human to not quite human.

When caterpillars spin for themselves a chrysalis to live it, they enter a new stage of life where they do more than just transition. If you crack open the flaky layers of a week old chrysalis, you won't find a caterpillar slowly turning into a butterfly, or even anything recognizable. During metamorphosis the body of the insect breaks down into a formless mass of goo that is then reshaped in a new, grander image. The caterpillar is literally unmade and then shaped into something new. There is no slow evolution, only the destruction of what was once true into something new.

'What was once this can not just become that.'

Trials prep changelings for the last great test of their metal.

"How much do you know of his icons?" Shisui asks, leaning forward. It doesn't seem like he will go back to bed and rest anytime soon, no matter what Sakura says. She doesn't interrupt.

Sai looks back down at his book and turns a page before answering, never once lifting his eyes. "He never showed anyone all his icons, and no one knows how many he as exactly except maybe himself. But I know he has at least two. He has used both in my presence."

"Has he used either on you?" Sakura guesses, unable to ask anything else.

Sai's eyes stop scanning the page. He doesn't look up, but Sakura can tell he's no longer reading the book. It's enough of an answer even if he doesn't say anything. Sai was too broken for Danzo not to take advantage of. Of course the man would use whatever power he had on Sai. That's what evil men do.

"Sorry," Sakura quickly amended. "Don't feel like you have to answer that."

She wishes she was back in the wine cellar of Sarutobi's manor with a mug of hard cider to match Sai's. He had promised to share the drink with her, and she had told him he was still too young, but he would have ignored her anyway. What was a little hard cider to someone who had tasted fairy wine? In the cellar on the floor they would talk and admit things, share things, confess things. He'd tell her a little about what he felt and she'd tell him a little about what she saw. Maybe he'd even tell her what Danzo did to him to make him so uniquely broken.

She looks to the clock on the end table and tries to remember what it said when they first checked in. It was November second, All Soul's Day and it was nearly over.

"We need our rest. We can figure out what happened and what needs to happen next in the morning. Sai, how are the ink patrol?"

"We're set for another eight hours." He looks down at his book again.

Sakura nods and turns to Shisui pushing him into the covers. He glares at her all the way down. "You need rest and so do I. Don't get up or make too much noise because I need my sleep too."

Sakura stood and moved to the bathroom to change and brush out her hair. It had gotten longer and needed to be braided over her shoulder for when she slept. Maybe she would cut it, but she didn't feel like it when all her brain could think about was surviving and the broken wishbone. In the morning she would tell the what it meant.

* * *

The Hall of Cups was more like a golden dungeon.

In the center of the room lay an iron cradle curved up to hold a man or woman, but never a babe. Three of the four walls had long tables pressed up against them and the ceiling was vaulted to make room for all the dripping chandeliers that were far too common in the house of the Fox High Queen. She loved things that sparkled as much as any fay and never denied her indulgence.

On the tables sat cup and chalices, mug and goblets of all manner of metal and shape. Some were large and dazzling, others humble and small. Each one had a substance inside it. Each one was unique.

There were two fay on either of her arms, and Sakura barely felt it when they led her to the iron cradle in the center of the room. They pulled at the silk robe over her body and it fell into a moon colored puddle around her ankles. She remembered sucking in that breath and holding it behind her teeth as her skin stood to attention at the exposure. One of the fay maids picked her her hair braided it up to keep it off her neck. The other took a wet cloth to rub all of Sakura's skin raw.

Ready, they led her to the cradle's side and helped her in, then left her there.

Time didn't have a name for how long or short Sakura waited in the metal. Candles lit didn't melt wax, and no sun or moon moved in the windows. Time didn't move, but Sakura felt herself exist for longer than a second. It was Fay time, it wasn't her time.

"Our time means nothing to you. You will know this if you ever leave here," someone once told her.

Sakura remembered asking when she could go home and hearing only laughter. There was no retreat from the bargain she had made. A foolish child deserved a foolish fate. What else was meant for selfish brats?

Sakura didn't hear the door behind her open, but she felt the air in the room shift and change, like ever inanimate object turned in attention to the new presence. For a human, Sakura couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed when she saw the outline of the high queen of the entire Fox Court. Mito was as lovely as they said, and twice as terrifying for it.

The queen of flaming red hair and fox fire eyes stood before the first table and perused the cups before pinching the grasses out of one and adding it to her mortar. She moved to the next table and did the same, choosing leaves from a taller goblet with wide sides. Before moving on she took the colored flowers from another low chalice.

At the last table she paused, glanced back over her shoulder and then reached for the herbs that came from a shabby looking cup. The herbs were ugly and barbed and Sakura felt sick at the sight of them.

Compared to such a beauty Sakura doubted she looked any more appealing than a thorn in the mud. She was a weed among wild flowers. She had a decade of feeling inadequate and out of place, but the way the queen looked at her made Sakura feel ten times worse.

When Mito spoke it was like the sound of metal ringing prettily. She sounded like bells, a thing that nearly all fay hated and some even feared. Many stopped the ringing of bells as soon as they hear it.

"Each child from my iron bed is a unique bled of life. The last girl that lay there was not made of such things as yarrow or mistletoe. She was too big for such things, too far gone for molding. But you…you're a ugly thing that has what we don't. You're quite empty, nothing next to your soul and no sparkle behind it. That's why you know how to feel."

Mito brought up her mixing mortar and ground the parts of plants together. She paused after a moment to consider the mixture and then began again. Sakura didn't dare speak while she waited.

"Did you think she would survive because she was fay? Is that why you let her win the last icon from the trials?"

Sakura shut her mouth and then her eyes. She pressed them both closed and kept them shut. She didn't want to hear the High Queen's words and wished she could shut her ears too, but her hands were pressed to her sides and she kept them there. There was no way she could ignore the sound of the powder being scraped out of the mortar into something else.

"You thought you were being humble, or was it selfishness?"

Sakura braces as her iron bed is tilted up so her head and upper body are inclined above her knees and ankles. When the bed stops moving she opens her eyes and sees Mito watching her. The High Queen is smiling.

"I think there is much my sons and daughter could learn from a creature like you. We know no such feelings of longing or desperation, it's not in our nature to feel such a way…at least, not until it is taught to us."

"Please," Sakura whispers, feeling her heart stutter in her chest. "I just want to go home. Let me go back, please. I'm sorry for what I asked for, please just send me back."

"That's why you're here. Didn't you say you would give anything for your precious home?" Mito holds up a small bowl and runs a single, perfect, pale finger along the edge. "So here your are, giving me what I want so that you may go home."

"What is that?" Sakura asks, already knowing why she had been chosen but not understanding the implications of becoming the Rabbit Nomination. She had just wanted to survive the trials alongside her friends and go home. There were too many horrors.

"I want victory, sweet beast, the kind that comes unending for generations. I want dominion, I want power, I want submission. There are a great many things I want, but what I will take from you is the title of this Rabbit Game. You will run for us better than any other Rabbit before or after you. None will know how to run as well as the fearful and the desperate."

Mito stepped forward and lifted the cup in her hands to Sakura's face.

"I'm not a fay. I wouldn't be any good for you," Sakura whispered, watching as the cup drew closer. She wanted to go home, or back to Karin, but she couldn't move once bound my the magic thrall of the Iron Cradle.

"Not to worry, grotesque one."

Mito pinched Sakura's jaw and tilted the cup to the human girl's lips. The concoction went down smooth like honey and bitter like Granny Smith apples. Sakura felt where it settled in her stomach and closed her eyes to the echo of it, burning her like a spoonful of soup on a cold day. It was almost pleasant at first, but that did not last. Next, it was hot, and then after that, it was burning her alive from the inside out.

Sakura screamed, unable to do anything more. No longer girl, no longer human, Sakura was a scream; she was nothing more and nothing less than the sound of pain that owned her completely.

Mito's voice was too perfect to be human. It came like a chirp of pitched metal. Her eyes were too wide and well painted and too lovely to look at. Her voice was more of a coo. "We have a whole year to train you up after I make you in our image…. I will leave you fearfully and wonderfully made."

Then Mito stuck her hands into the mess that was Sakura and made her anew.

* * *

_You know what you will find when you break open a butterflies' chrysalis? You know what you will see?_

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That throws me to the ground  
I swear that you should hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

_AN:_ So here it is, I'm going to be submitting weekly updates, sometimes twice a week if it's well received, about my fay au Sakura and her rouge bunch on the run. White Rabbit ended with no final romantic pairing, but you'll see a lot more 'ust in this sequel. A lot more sexual tension and stupid fan service peppered in there alongside the actual plot. This was my Nano novel, so I was just really having a lot of fun with it more than anything.

I hope you enjoyed and stick around. Please review and let me know what you thought. I'm truly and honestly trying to better myself and want to work on this with that sort of goal.

Vesper Chan


	3. Red Fox: Drumming Song 2

Previously: White Rabbit (Raise it up)

* * *

**Red Fox: Drumming Song II**

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That starts when you're around  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

Recap: Mito pinched Sakura's jaw and tilted the cup to the human girl's lips. The concoction went down smooth like honey and bitter like Granny Smith apples. Sakura felt where it settled in her stomach and closed her eyes to the echo of it, burning her like a spoonful of soup on a cold day. It was almost pleasant at first, but that did not last. Next, it was hot, and then after that, it was burning her alive from the inside out.

Sakura screamed, unable to do anything more. No longer girl, no longer human, Sakura was a scream; she was nothing more and nothing less than the sound of pain that owned her completely.

Mito's voice was too perfect to be human. It came like a chirp of pitched metal. Her eyes were too wide and well painted and too lovely to look at. Her voice was more of a coo. "We have a whole year to train you up after I make you in our image…. I will leave you fearfully and wonderfully made."

Then Mito stuck her hands into the mess that was Sakura and made her anew.

* * *

_You know what you will find when you break open a butterflies' chrysalis? You know what you will see?_

* * *

She slept more than eight hours and awoke with a start, feeling the weight of a heavy sleep stick to her and tug her back in the direction of the bed. Disoriented for only a moment she flipped over and fell onto her knees out of bed before scrambling up again. Her hair was a mess around her face, the braid having come undone in her sleep. She pushed the messy strands away from her eyes, backwards over her skull, feeling the shape of her head-it was whole and unbroken. She was not unmade.

"Just a dream," she whispered, shutting her eyes and leaning sideways against the wall. She could hear someone in the bathroom running water through the shower and Sai was asleep in the chair. One of his ink cats lounged atop the armrest.

Behind her the water turned off.

"Sai? You didn't come to bed?"

He didn't stir and she guessed he fell asleep where he sat. There was a book left open across his lap. Drawing closer she could see the title. The Physiology of the Human Emotions. Sakura picked up another one of his books and flipped through it. The title was similar and she saw the interior content was all about developing social awareness. It looked like a self help book for people on the autism spectrum.

The door to the bathroom opened and Sakura heard wet feet move across the tile. She didn't turn around, but replaced Sai's book and pulled a blanket off the bed to drape across his body. The cat's tail twitched back and forth, eyes fixed on watching her as she did her best to make it comfortable for the boy.

"New Destruction won't even let me in anymore."

Sakura almost turned around at the sound of the voice but caught herself at the last moment. "What?"

"It's the name of my castle, the one they gave to me when I won the races. Itachi had his own, but he always preferred to crash at mine."

Shisui came up to their bed and she heard him sit down as the old springs groaned under the new weight. Sakura risked a look back over her shoulder and saw he at least had a towel around his waist and one over his head. Those heavy black curls of his were dripping water droplets like dew on morning flowers. His eyelashes were extra dark and far reaching.

"What do you mean?" Sakura moved to stand in front of him, still keeping a distance. "How would you know something like that?"

"You were asleep for a long time. I got restless." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"You left?!" Her voice spoked and she clamped her hands down over her lips, body hot with embarrassment, but Sai didn't stir. "What the hell were you thinking? What if they caught you, or what if they tracked you back here? Oh God, if you were able to make it there and back in that short time-"

"You're safe here," Shisui snapped, interrupting her and not flinching for the way his voice might have woken the other runaway in the room. "I wouldn't have been so sloppy. And there's a lot of things I'm lacking in or don't measure up to Itachi in, but I'm faster than him, at least. I know the secret ways that he can't follow me through."

He folded her hands together and held them until they shook. Sakura took a sideways step to see more of his face from under the shadow of the towel. His eyes were hard and his expression pinched. He looked so unhappy with himself. She had forgotten how hard this had to be on him. His home was taken, his family taken captive, his world turned upside down. Whatever Itachi had been to him, it had been more than enemies, more than what they were now.

Sakura turned around and sat down on the bed beside him. She didn't touch him and didn't reach for him, but he leaned in closer to her, head bent low like a chastised puppy's.

"I know, I'm sorry for reacting like that." Sakura didn't touch him, but let him continue to lean closer and closer to her. Soon their shoulders touched and he stopped moving, waiting to be pushed off or shoved aside.

"He took over everything except the capital. There was no way I could get in. There were so many dead bodies outside the gates. Itachi and the others killed them all. It was a-it was supposed to be a coup but Madara locked himself away with the rest of the high court."

"I've never heard of such a thing happening."

The Fay were bloody, ruthless, and cruel, but they prided themselves so much on being civilized. They didn't make a mess out of themselves when they hated each other, they set up war games to take their frustration out on.

"I've not heard of such a thing happening to the courts like this. The Senju must be roving in delight with the way things are going." When he realized his mistake, Shisui waved a hand as he offered up his explanation. "The Senju court is the seelie court we play the Rabbit Games with. They would love to see us fail especially after I kicked their butt in the games last round."

"Do you think they could have had a hand in this?" Sakura asked, trying to remember where she had heard of the Senju before. It sounded familiar.

"No, they're insufferable, self righteous pricks, but they're not underhanded like this. No, this sort of skullduggery is he kind of stuff I would expect from a wizard, or someone human."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "That's a very fay thing for you to say. Just because you can't lie doesn't mean you're above this sort of treachery. Humans are no worse monsters."

"I didn't meant you." He turned to her and the towel over his head slid down, pulling some of his curls backwards only to have them flip forward again.

Sakura stood, not wanting the conversation to turn personal. "This isn't about me. We were talking about the other things you learned. You said you were able to make it there and back in so little time. How did you manage it?"

"I used the Iron Highway. I was there and back before they even noticed me. I went home first, but the gates were all locked and the servants I knew were no longer about. Itachi's court was there, his help was in the kitchens, his property was on the grounds."

"You saw Itachi?"

"No, but I saw his people there. He's staying in my castle like a vindictive child, as if it were a trophy to display." Shisui's fists hit the mattress on either side. "I know he was unhappy with the way we were treated after the races, and what his family did to him, but I had no idea he hated me so much. To take my house like that was like rubbing salt on a wound."

Sakura remembered dancing with him and the way he held her when she shook from her flashbacks. He had been stiff at first, but he always noticed her. He knew she took her tea with honey in the first week and gave her the space she needed when things were starting to overwhelm her. She had liked Itachi, and not just because he was pretty like Ino pointed out. No, She had liked Itachi because of who he was. He was patient with her when she told him she had seen those ugly parts of his past. He wasn't the sort of person she pegged for a traitor.

"I…I'm not someone that should really be saying this, because I barely knew him, but I didn't expect that of him at the end. I thought he was someone we could trust."

"It wasn't just you. I didn't see it coming even after I knew how he felt about…" he glanced upwards at where she stood looking down at him and let his words trail off. "I was surprised as well."

Sakura chuckled to herself and ran another hand through her longer hair. "This is the most frustrating job I've taken in a while. If I knew this was what I was signing up for I think I would have stayed in New York City." She stretched her arms out at her sides. "But there's no going back to that now. There's no way we can go to your place, and no way we can go back to Carnation Manor. I have enough money to keep us here for a while, but that's not a fix."

"Anyplace the boy would know would be a place Danzo knew of, we couldn't risk that either," Shisui offered, glaring at Sai. It was clear he still didn't trust the child.

"I'll find us a place here, I'll manage somehow, but that's only one problem to deal with. Danzo will come for us, if not to skin you and me than to stop Sai from spilling anything. I doubt he would be willing to let us go if he swallowed children up in that ivy. What do we do about Danzo?"

"You mean you think we should do nothing?" Shisui asked, sounding surprised.

Sakura rolled her shoulders, frowning at the suggestion. " _No_. Obviously we can't do that. He has Ino and her family. A lot of people got caught in his crossfire and I can't leave her behind, but let's be realistic right now, we have limits. Neither of us are the fighter type, we run. That's what we were made for, running away. What can we do?"

"Who says we have to hit back?" Shisui ran a hand through his wet curls. "He said he wouldn't hurt them while he did whatever he said he wanted to get done. I don't think your friend is in immediate danger, and he hates Sarutobi but also loves the guy in an old timer sort of way. He won't kill Sarutobi."

"While we do what?"

The idea of leaving Ino alone made Sakura's stomach curl up and flip. She had never been the strongest or the best of anything, not even the trials. But she never gave up on her friends at least. Leaving Ino felt too much like abandoning her. So what if she was safe? She wasn't free.

"We could seek out the other courts to help. They'll do something if for no other reason than to preserve their pride. A human did this to us. They'll take care of Danzo once they find out. It's the very reason Danzo wanted to shut us up."

"Other courts…?"

Sakura had not known much of any court aside from the ones she had direct contact with, which meant she knew of her original court, the unseelie court she raced against, and the Uchiha court. How many were there in America? She had thought most of the courts were oversea where the tradition was stronger.

"The Uchiha are the Crow Court, the Senju are the Oak Court, the Kain are the Ram Court." Shisui listed off a few more but none of it made any sense. He didn't list her court and she wondered if he even knew about it. Did many people know of it? She had thought it more powerful and large court, but compared to what?

"I don't know anything about any of the courts you mentioned, but even if you tried to explain it to me know and I don't think it would make sense. I need food and so do the two of you."

"I can go days without food," Shisui huffed, smiling a rakish sort of grin.

"Cool, but I can't, and neither can Sai. I'm going to go change and freshen up. We're going out to eat when I'm done."

"What if the kid isn't awake by then?"

Sakura glanced sideways at Sai, noticing the cat was gone. "He's been awake for a while, haven't you, Sai?"

The boy cracked open a single eye and Shisui frowned. Sakura waved and then turned into the bathroom with a bag of her things. Over her shoulder she called out to the two of them to play nice and, 'not kill each other while she was changing.'

When she came out again Shisui was fully dressed and looking ready to leave. His hands were deep in the pockets of the narrow black jeans in addition to a white muscle tee shirt and a leather jacket lined with fur. She hadn't remembered grabbing those things for him and when he caught her staring he flushed, asking her not to ask. The nicer suit he had been wearing when he ran was in a pile on the end of the bed.

Sai was back to reading his book from earlier but the blanket she had draped across him was still in place.

"Where are we going?" Shisui asked.

"Somewhere with breakfast food. I want waffles and sugar right now," Sakura admitted, pulling on an army green jacket complete with hand stitched patches bought of Etsy before her life went to hell in a hand basket.

She popped the hood and dropped her things into the oversized pockets while stepping into her combat boots and lacing up their fronts.

Sai watched her while tugging on his own shoes. "It's five in the afternoon. Where are you going to find a place that still serves breakfast?" Sai asked.

"Welcome to Denny's. Is it three adults?"

Shisui smirked, glancing over at Sai. "Well, this one's a kid so I think he needs a coloring book."

The waitress barely blinked at them before grabbing three adult menus and leading them to a booth. Shisui pushed Sai in and then slid in after the kid so that he could be across from Sakura. Sakura ignored it all while peeling off her jacket and grabbing the all day breakfast menu and asking for three waters to start with.

The waitress left a moment later on the promise of getting right back to them with their orders. The restaurant was nearly dead, even for being at the normal time most would go out for dinner. That was fine. More room for them.

"You said something about not knowing about the courts…" Shisui began before pulling out a travel map.

He started to unfold it and spread it across the table. Sakura helped him keep it down with the syrup shakers. Shisui pulled out a sharpie and Sai flinched, reaching for one of his pockets and glaring. Shisui just smirked.

"I said I didn't know everything, not nothing," she said. Still, her knowledge was close to nothing.

"I don't know everything either, I'm just proficient with the east coast clubs. Anything further west than Georgia is mystery to me unless it's from Seattle or Oregon."

Shisui then began to draw stars over cities and write their names under them. Sakura saw the Crow Court drawn in messy script far up in the lowest corner of Main. He further down he traveled the more Sakura held her breath until he reached Virginia and she saw him write: Fox Court in messy cursive.

"I can hardly read your chicken scratch," Sai commented, glaring at the mess of courts. Shisui named about twenty five different ones.

"Not my fault you can't read."

Sai just glared.

"Which ones are seelie and which ones are the unseelie?" Sakura asked, noting how there were an uneven number on the map.

"I don't' know for all of them, but most of them are unseelie. I'm sure there are others that stay hidden, but since the Crow Court is an unseelie court we know more courts that are on the same vein."

He started to fold the map back up when he spotted the waitress coming back with their waters and had it put away before she reached their table. Sai reached for the sharpie before Shisui could put it away and stashed it inside his jacket's inner pocket.

"What you care to order, guys?"

Sakura read off her order to the waitress and handed in her menu. When Sai hiked his shoulders and started to mumble about something Sakura interrupted and said he would be getting the same thing as her but with a side of eggs and sausage, and yes she was willing to pay the extra two bucks for it. Shisui ordered an omelet with extra meat and the waitress was satisfied to take their menus away with her and submit the order.

Once she was gone Shisui started to unfold the map again, but only unfolded half of it. Sakura unwrapped her napkin full of silverware and used the end of her spoon to point to a spot on the map.

"What do you know of this court?"

Shisui leaned forward. "Them? They're cousins to the Senju I think. They're at least on good terms with them, but they don't travel north. I've never interacted with them before and not a lot is known beyond the rumors, why?"

"What rumors?"

Shisui shrugged. "They have a high queen that is crazy, but they're super old so no one says anything. Ugh, they're a pretty hardcore matriarchy which is unusual, but like I said…crazy queen calls the shots. But I'll repeat my question from earlier, why?"

Sakura tapped the star that identified where the Fox Court was located in Virginia. "This was my court."

Sai leaned forward to get a better look at the map while Shisui's eyes went a little wide. "Oh."

"Was she really crazy?" Sai asked, not picking up on the social cues that kept others from being so blunt.

Sakura didn't seem to mind. "I guess so, but I thought that was how all fay were. What else did I have to compare her to? She was crazy enough to make her white rabbit out of a human changeling. She wore the eyes of her dead husbands in glass rings on six of her fingers. She was master of the foxfire though."

"I didn't know they participated in the Rabbit Games," Shisui said.

"They lost a lot. I can imagine they didn't like to advertise that."

"But you won," Sai said. "It's why you're still alive."

Shisui's eyes flashed and he looked ready to slap the other male at the table for that comment but Sakura didn't react. She had a lot more patience when it came to Sai. She braced for the flashbacks all the same, but they didn't come.

"Yeah, I won and I got to go home. Three guesses how they felt about that." She slanted her eyes over to Shisui and raised her brows.

"Not many fay like giving up their trophies," he whispered.

"No, they don't, do they?" Sakura sighed, leaning down to rest the side of her face in her open hand after propping her elbow up on the table top. "But a promise is a promise, so I'm here."

'Good job getting away,' the voice inside her head mocks.

"But I'm not telling you this for the story. I told you one of my icons broke as payment for the Foxglove Bell? It was a wishbone icon and it protected me from loosing my memories, but it also kept memories locked up."

"What kind of memories?" Sai asked, playing with the edges of his napkin and tearing at it.

Sakura looked to Shisui but blinked and leaned back. "Food's here."

The trio sat back in their seats and moved the things aside to made room for their food. Sakura started to dig into her food before Shisui even saw his and only gave a thumbs up when the waitress asked how the food was. It was a pretty straightforward exchange that was over in less than two minutes.

Sakura reached over and stole one of Sai's sausages before dipping it in her maple syrup and biting into the link. He didn't even protest when she reached to do it again and that agitated her enough to put chunks of her waffle into his mouth before stealing more of his food. Shisui leveled half lidded eyes on the younger male's posture and huffed before turning to his own meal. He left strips of bacon at the far edge of his plate closest to Sakura. When he won't stop pouting she swipes it for herself.

"You were going to tell us more about the memories inside your wishbone," Sai said after a while. He picked at his food but ate when Sakura looked his way.

"Yeah. Basically I left the Fox Court on pretty crummy terms. I walked out with two birds in the air if you know what I mean." She looked up and saw both boys staring at her with the same blank expression. "Never mind. I left on bad terms, but a deal's a deal. Mito let me go, but there were those in her court who wanted to stop me so I took their memories of me and locked them away to keep them from chasing after me or tracking me down again in the human world."

"How many memories did you take?" Shisui asked, frowning slightly.

Sakura shrugged. "Less than a dozen. There were only four I was really worried about, the rest were just to keep them from speaking. It pissed Mito off but I told her I'd do worse if I wasn't left in peace. She told me it didn't matter what I did, that true freedom was a myth. Huh, guess she was right."

"She knew you took their memories but she let you go anyway? That's a punishable offense." Shisui waved a fork in her direction. "She either really liked you or was feeling generous that day."

"She made a promise, gave me her word. There wasn't a lot she could do to get out of it."

Sakura said that, but her words lacked confidence. Yes, it was true that Mito had given her word, but there was something else that Sakura was afraid to admit. When Sakura walked out the High Queen had laughed and laughed and waved like a pageant queen at parade, enjoying Sakura's departure like any good show. She had been pissed at Sakura for what she did to her grandsons, the twin fay princes, but she still laughed at the way Sakura left. Scary.

"You'll be back one day," she laughed at Sakura's back. "There's no way you can stay away."

"Mito's psychological profile is consistent with one who would be more inclined to play mind games than punish people who make life interesting for her," Sai interjects. When Sakura sends him a wide eyed look he just shrugs and turns his face away. "Danzo had me look into all the relatives of the Senju.

"You've heard of her court before?" Sakura asked.

"It's one of the larger courts, so yes."

"It's also one of the courts in charge of protecting a sleeper."

Sakura looked up suddenly at Shisui. "What?"

"You wouldn't have known, but it's one of the four courts put in charge of protecting a sleeper along with the Uchiha. A long time ago it was the Senju, but they passed that duty to the Fox Court." Shisui picked at another forkful of egg before shoveling it onto his fork. "But they would never tell a mere rabbit something like that unless he was sneaky enough to weasel his way into someone's good graces. Typically we rabbits are thought of so fondly." He bit the egg of his fork.

"And here I thought I came from a no name court. Ugh, that makes this so much worse now that I think about it."

"What worse?" Sai asks, leaning forward. Shisui eats more of his food from his seat but leans in as well.

"I'm almost positive that the fay who's memories I stole will be looking for me. I was praying we'd get lucky and I think thats what it has been so far. Two of them were lead hunters in the Rabbit Games."

Shisui flinched and then chuckled dryly. "That's a fun problem to have. I never thought I'd be running from their like again."

"You'll understand how I felt when I trained with Itachi. It wasn't the easiest," Sakura said softly, trying to be sympathetic. Shisui had his own demons to wrestle with.

"So, we're on the run from these guys as well?" Sai asked to clarify.

"Yeah, most likely, but we're in the human world so they'll be severely slowed down." Sakura pushed forward a salt shaker, tapping the metal top. "We got a few foxes following our scent." She then pushed up the pepper shaker. "And we have Danzo's fun friends on our tail. Which do you think is worse?"

"Danzo. We don't even know if your friends are hostile yet," Shisui said, pushing up the pepper shaker even further before grabbing it to sprinkle over his eggs. There was little left on his plate. "Also, Danzo will kill me when he finds me."

Sakura glared at Shisui. "Don't you mean if he finds you?"

Shisui grinned and it was rakish again. "He'll find me, that's not the big deal, catching me is."

"Speaking of Danzo…" Sakura cantered her eyes to the younger boy at the table. "Sai, what can you tell us about his goals. I can guess it has something to do with the sleepers?"

"Danzo wants access, information on how to access one of the sleepers. As I understand it, he wants to destroy it and prevent the inevitable destruction of our world."

Shisui snorted and then smirked when Sai looked over and almost glared. "What?" Shisui drawled, leaning back in his seat. "You said something funny. There's no way a human could comprehend, much less destroy something like one of the four primordial sleepers. They were here before the foundations of the world were cooled. They're much older than any of our courts on this pesky continent."

Sakura remembered the stories the fay told about the end of the world. There were shakers in the sky that would tear it apart, and conquering hoards that would reap the earth of life, and then there were the four sleepers who would tremble the earth asunder and make it anew.

There were even stories of heroes of old who found the sleepers and closed off all the tunnels into the earth a person could take. In Europe, the access to these sleepers was cut off long ago and the halls made into shrines for the Roving Hunt, the Wild Hoard, the Ancient Riders, and the Beastborn Crusaders were sacked and sealed up. Nothing could be done to stop the story of the creatures who would pull apart the skies, but the high places were torn down and the star charts were destroyed.

At least…that's what the stories say.

Sakura thought the fay stories of the end of the world too lyrical and pompous to be rooted in anything. But now she had seen a sleeper for herself, she couldn't afford to be an unbeliever any more.

"Danzo thinks he's a hero." Both boys turned to her when she spoke. "He thinks he's saving the world from this."

"What Danzo believes is no use to me. I only obey. That was my function."

"The nut job thinks he's a savior, just like the ones of old. That is one of the most dangerous things a villain can be. What is it they say about how we're all just the heroes of our own stories, even villains?"

Sakura dragged the last bit of her waffle through the syrup with her fork, frowning at the way the maple sugar parted and then was soaked up into the fluff of the waffle. With little left of her food, she savored it in her mouth before going for another bite. Across from her Shisui finished his eggs and Sai just stared at what was left of his food. Half of his original portion remained.

Sakura reached for her water and frowned when it came to her lips warm. All the ice had melted during their time at the table. She sipped at it before setting it aside and turned her wrist over to drag it across her mouth in place of a napkin. It had fallen off her lap earlier.

Sakura caught Shisui staring and wanted to say something about it, but stopped at the last moment. Shisui wasn't a stranger to staring, but this time something was different. She saw it in the tightness of the skin around his eyes, the way his shoulders hiked ever so slightly, like he was trying to hide it.

The ice was gone from all their cups and Sakura reached for Sai's on impulse, sipping it to check. She hissed when it came out warm. No, warmer than just warm.

No one was left in the Denny's.

"Tell me I'm not paranoid," Shisui hissed, shoulders shaking from suppressed tension. Sai picked up on it a second later.

"Shit," Sakura cursed, reaching under the table and lifting it up. The plates slid free as she toss the structure up over their booths to land where a flash of red had just been sitting. As soon as the table crashed down, Sakura was reaching for Sai and their things with a rabbit mask in place alongside a similarly transformed Shisui.

They didn't get far before fox fire sprang up in front of the doors, and then the windows. Sakura herded the boys to a far wall without fire and banged it hard. It only led to the kitchen, where she could hear more fire eating.

"Traps, great, my favorite," Shisui mocked, fingers tipped with black.

His eyes were red inside of his mask and wild. Sakura knew she was likely no different as Sai summoned his wand and began to paint with it. A wolf made out of ink was melted before it could take two steps and Sakura summoned her own wand before working alongside Sai to push back the flames when they began to grow closer.

Fox fire couldn't be put out with water or sand. It had to be smothered and that was hard to do in such a situation. Sakura couldn't remember ever actually achieving the fete. She had always elected to run through the fire herself and suffer the minor burns, least she become trapped and suffer major burns.

"Shisui, can you run through the flames to the outside?"

"Yeah."

Sakura hissed. "Then do it!" The fire around them was making her sweat and she could feel it seeping down behind her mask. It was stuffy and getting harder to breath too. There was no smoke, but the air was wild with shimmering heat all around them. There was nowhere to run that wouldn't be hot or in flames.

"I'm not gonna leave you behind, damn it," he stress laughed. "No. We're _not_ getting separated."

Sai cast his own water and ice spells on the fire but they burned up like ink on the flames. He took a step back behind Sakura as she transformed her wand back into a branch that faded away in a burst of petals.

"Fine, we'll make the run together. I've got Sai."

"You won't be able to keep up with a dead weight."

The fire roar and transformed, growing into a form like that of an animal. Someone cursed as it turned, crouched, and roared. Seconds later the flames turned crimson red down to their hearts and dulled. Amidst the flames a new woman walked.

"One of the new memory fay?" Sai asked, summoning an ink lion.

Sakura swallowed as the fire envoy came into view. "Yeah. Probably."

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That throws me to the ground  
I swear that you should hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

_AN: Rough no edit adventure above! I'll maybe come back and fix a few things, but I need some time away from it first. :)_

I hope you enjoyed and stick around. Please review and let me know what you thought. I'm truly and honestly trying to better myself and want to work on this with that sort of goal.

Vesper Chan


	4. Chapter 4

Previously: White Rabbit (Raise it up)

* * *

**Red Fox: Drumming Song III**

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That starts when you're around  
I swear that you could hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

Recap: The fire roar and transformed, growing into a form like that of an animal. Someone cursed as it turned, crouched, and roared. Seconds later the flames turned crimson red down to their hearts and dulled. Amidst the flames a new woman walked.

"One of the new memory fay?" Sai asked, summoning an ink lion.

Sakura swallowed as the fire envoy came into view. "Yeah. Probably."

* * *

"No use fighting it," Sakura laughed, grabbing for a discarded purse on the floor, already thinking about two minutes in the future. "Shisui, you distract it, preferably away from this wall here. Sai, you're going to use your ink beasts to tear this wall down. Once it's open Shisui and I can bolt you out of here."

"You want me to knocked down a wall?" Sai echoed.

Shisui sneered before his mask came down on his face. "Your ink magic is useless against this fire. Make yourself useful in something." And with those last biting words Shisui took off, dipping and diving over flame and fire as the envoy made out of magic and fox fire rounded on the black rabbit.

Sai glared but drew a bear out of ink that rose up high and came down on the plaster wall with lethal claws. Sakura scavenged for items the thralled patrons had left behind, keeping out of sight as she worried about how far they would have to go this time. An envoy made out of fire was a long distance strategy for hunters, but that didn't mean whoever was controlling it had to be far away. They could still be nearby, there was no guarantee of anything.

" _Sakura_."

She turned to see Sai already on the back of a griffin taking off out of the hole. Shisui landed in front of her and scooped her up before she could even don her mask or summon her powers.

"Don't bother," Shisui spoke into her ear before a whip of fire could reach him. He leapt out of the way with her in his arms. "I got _you_ this time."

Behind them Sakura heard the anger of the fire envy as it's target slipped away and wondered who it belonged to. She thought of the usual suspects and knew there was no way to know for sure since most of them were related and she hadn't seen their envoys well enough during the games to tell them apart. Could they be told apart? Naruto and his brother were so alike in many different areas, magic was just one of them.

"Not today," Shisui mocked, holding her to his chest and flash stepping away. His body was a blur in a world that ran in smears like a wet painting all around them. The fire envoy could only roar and hope to chase them.

It did not get far.

Now Sakura was grateful for having left their car by the hotel and walking to the Denny's. She wanted to stay the night and get her money's worth for their room, but she put Shisui and Sai in along with the things she had scavenged and tore out of there as inconspicuously as she could just as dusk fell into dark.

"Why did you take this stuff?" Sai asked, going through the purse that looked like it had belonged to a teenage girl. There wasn't much in their worth taking, but the teen did have snacks, which Sai appreciated.

Shisui grabbed a nicer looking purse and pulled it open, frowning as he sorted through the mess of it. "Is any of this important?"

"The money is. We need to eat and find a place to sleep each night that isn't this cramped hunk of junk. Plus there are other expenses to consider when on the run, like toiletries, gas, and-Shisui!" Sakura took her eyes off the road only to glance sideways at Shisui but did a double take when she saw him peeling open a heavy flow sanitary napkin.

"Odd for a bandage."

Sakura flushed before reaching out and smacking it out of his hands. "Don't touch that."

"Sakura," Sai called from the backseat. She felt her stomach roll at the tone in his voice.

"What?" she glanced into the rearview mirror.

"What is this?"

Sakura dragged her eyes away and set them back on the road, determined not to react. "That's a tampon. It's not for you and it's not a good idea to pull it open or touch it."

She heart the wrapper being pulled away as Sai ignored her and tugged on the string. Shisui turned around in his seat to tug at the tampon from the other end, echoing Sai's earlier question.

"I said to put it away, don't touch it."

"But what does it do?" Sai asked, sounding lost.

Shisui grabbed it away and rolled it around in his hands, feeling the soft parts. "I think it collects dust."

"Why would she have something like that in her purse?" Sai fired back, more accusatory than usual when it came to Shisui. "Your assumption makes no sense."

"Then what do you think it would be used for?" the older fay asked in a snappish tone.

Sai reached for the wrapper and smoothed it out to read the writing along the side. "For medium to heavy flow…it's for water. I must be to absorb water spills. She carried a cleaning device in her purse for messes."

"I'm not hearing this," Sakura muttered to herself, glaring at the road in front of her through the windshield. She almost wished she was back in the burning Denny's to avoid the secondhand embarrassment she was feeling from the two boys. She would have to be extra careful when it came time for her own period to hit, which was supposed to be soon.

At least they had found the worst thing first and it couldn't get any more uncomfortable than it already was.

There was more tearing in the backseat when Sai found something in the side zipper pouch of the teenager's bag. Sakura heard the sipper come down before the tearing. "Why would they name this rummer pouch after a Trojan?" Sai asked aloud.

Sakura felt the color drain from her face as she heard the elastic snap.

Three and a half hours later Sakura pulled into a gas station and took stock of their travels. A paper copy map lay open over the hood of her car as the pump fed gas into her tank. She had a red market from the glove compartment and was tracing their rout. They were heading south, which would eventually bring them too close to Virginian and the Fox Court she wanted to avoid so badly. They could try to pass by it and make it to Florida where most fay hated, or they could veer west and make a break for the middle lands were so little magic survived. The East Coast was too thick with lay lines and fay highways.

"You have a plan for us yet?"

Sakura looked up and saw Shisui staring at her from across the top of the car's hood. The pump clicked off but Sakura didn't move right away. It was late night and no one else was around.

"I wish I did. Right now I just need to get us to a motel for the night. Someplace open 24 hours. We can rest some more and think about our next steps there."

Shisui nodded, glancing at the silent pump. "That would be good. I don't want to travel much further away. If we-I decide to go back and fix things it would too long a trip for me to make on my own."

"You want to go back?" Sakura asked.

"No, I want to run away with you, but that's not what I should do." Shisui looked down when she stared at him. "Please don't think so little of me. Those were my family members he took Besides, you're going to go back for your friend with or without me. I won't leave you on your own for that."

"That's very noble sounding of you."

Shisui huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "That sounds like something Itachi would have said. He did selfless things all day long like it was expected of him but I was always the cowardly one. I need to know what went wrong with him."

"And I need to save Ino and Sarutobi's family. But…"

She glanced inside where Sai read one of the comic books he found stuffed under the seats from when Sakura was younger and would buy bulk crates of discount comics at nerd outlets. It was a favorite issue from the Spider Island series with Cloak and Dagger. The art was especially stunning.

"Sai signed up to get away from Danzo, to run from all this. I don't know if he's up for it, much less if he's capable of it."

The Uchiha fay shrugged and looked away. "I doubt he is, but he signed up to follow you, to turn the rest of his world upside down for you. He'll follow you to hell."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Don't baby the kid. He'll know and he doesn't need it. He needs someone to be real with him. That's the only way he'll grow from where he is now."

Sakura smiled and Shisui noticed, his ears turning red as he pretended to look away.

"I thought you didn't care about Sai."

"I _don't_. This was supposed to be _our_ getaway, just you and me, but now I'm stuck babysitting damaged human punks alongside the girl I like."

The tips of his ears were burning and it was cute to watch, considering that fay blood was gold and red color only showed as a result of emotion. Heat and physical discomfort like fever turned their skin a sickish yellow color. Sakura had seen that plenty enough, but never got tired of the way fay blushed. It was so rare, after all.

Sakura folded up her map and tossed it inside the car before turning to the pump. She paid it on a gas card she had pre filled with cash a few stations back. There was enough left on it for a few more gallons, but Sakura wasn't about to risk it again. She'd have to fill the card up before she used it again just to keep them off the radar. No doubt someone was watching to see if she was using her credit cards.

"Come on," She said with a nod. "We'll brainstorm ideas in the morning."

She slid into the drivers seat and Shisui followed her lead a minute later, ears still red as he watched her turn the key and put the car in gear. She didn't move but instead turned to look back over at Shisui. "What?"

"I like you."

"Y-you just said that."

"I like you." He leaned forward, closer to her, straining against the seatbelt. "I didn't think you knew that."

Sakura felt her face fill with color and cursed in her head. "Is that something I need to know now?" she asked, looking back at the road with her hands on the wheel. The car was still in park and idling.

"Yeah, I think you do cause you didn't pick up on it yourself," Shisui huffed. "I'm serious."

"You're fay."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and breathed out with a tired chuckle. "You're fay, I'm not. You don't know what it means to love a person. You're fascinated. You were fascinated with a _thing_ when you first asked for my name. It's no different now, and it's no different with Itachi. Fay don't feel like humans feel."

He sounded offended when he leaned his elbow on the divider between the seats that doubled as a storage section for CDs and paper napkins. "We don't know, or feel some emotions as deeply as your kind do, true, but we love just as well as any man or woman. I like you."

Sakura knew the stories, she had heard them all during her stay in the court she had traded herself away to. There were plenty of stories where a fay or a human steps out in love and somehow, through trial and terror, their love proves true and they live happily ever after in a new land between the here and the there.

The fay loved these stories for the impossibility and the struggle. It's hard for fay to believe in anyone wanting anything so badly or passionately. It's not an emotion they're born knowing how to feel. Wants and needs are always shallow until they touch humans and lean desperation.

Itachi lived among humans enough to learn their feelings. It wasn't hard to imagine someone as wild and outgoing as Shisui picking up a few things from all his dealings with Sarutobi and the human world. But that didn't mean she thought it was an honest attraction, only a convenient one.

He called her name and she remembered it was her turn to respond.

"You're _fascinated_ , just like Itachi. You're just kinder about how you show it."

"Itachi went about it the wrong way. But, what makes you think he wasn't also sincere about his feelings when he told you? We're fay, but that means we also can't lie. I just told you I like you, more than he does. I like you, Sakura."

Sai doesn't say anything from the backseat, but the comic book is lowered onto his lap.

Sakura doesn't speak at first, but instead switched the car out of park and into drive. The road was empty so she pulled out right away. Once they were driving straight again she opened her mouth. "You can like me all you want, that doesn't change what we are."

"Love between our kin is not such an impossible thing. The story of Avoria and Balem-"

"I'm not one of your damn stories," Sakura cut him off, sounding more tired and annoyed than angry.

Sweet pure Avoria so kind and lovely even the fay prince Balem bent his knee to her and kissed her ankles… it hurt to remember what it felt like to hear such stories as a stolen child in the Fox Court. As a girl that was all she wanted to be. All she had ever dreamed about was being the girl princess of wonder dripping in satin and jewels, face painted bright. How foolish she had been back then.

"Just…" she suck in a breath and then let it out, little by little. "Just, drop it. We'll be at a motel soon. I need a nap at the very least."

Sai leaned forward and leaned his head against the side of the seat where Shisui sat. "You tire more easily than either of us in that form."

Sakura felt like glaring, but kept her eyes on the road, evan as pain began to twinge low in her belly. "I'm fine."

"I did not mean that as a critique. You are guiding us, providing the finances for us, and driving us both around. You're the least capable of us and yet you're doing the most work."

Sakura took the next bend in the road slowly, glaring at the guardrail instead of Sai's reflection in the rearview mirror. "Okay Sai, I know you probably didn't mean to sound like a jackass, but you're kind of sounding like a jackass. You don't need to bring it up anymore. I get it."

Sai didn't seem to take offense. His facial expressions didn't change and his tone was the same when he spoke again. "You should take the next exit coming up. Exit 40A."

Sakura saw the exit coming up fast. "Why?"

"I know someone who hates Danzo. She might take us in," said Sai.

"Might?" Sakura echoed, tone doubtful even as she switched her blinker on and merged into the turnoff lane. "You don't think that's a bad idea going to see someone Danzo knows about. It might be a place he'd look for you."

"That is not likely. I was just as disliked as Danzo and even if he were to suspect my decision to seek her out, he wouldn't be able to oppose her as he is."

Shisui turned in his seat to look back at Sai. "Danzo has an army of changeling spies and more than one Uchiha fay under his command, one of which is the most deadly hunter in 300 years of Uchiha hunters. You think Danzo is weak just because he isn't a wizard?"

Sakura kept driving, but kept her attention divided between the road and Sai's words. Danzo wasn't a wizard, but if Sai was right about seeing icons being used, that meant Danzo was like her and a changeling. It didn't rank him very high on the power scales but there were things other than his powers that made him dangerous, like his mind, his drive, and the belief that what he was doing was noble and the right thing to do. Danzo believed he was saving the world and wasn't afraid of what he would have to do to keep that end from coming.

Sakura breathed out when another roll in her lower body made her want to wince. She needed to get to a bathroom soon.

"She's formidable in ways he is not equipped to counter," Sai answered Shisui even though his eyes were set on Sakura. He tapped her shoulder and pointed to the upcoming intersection. It was late, dark, and empty on the roads. "Take a left here and drive towards Autumn Grove."

Sakura did as Sai directed and followed the signs for Autumn Grove. There weren't a lot of them and in the dark the signs were hard to see unless they were reflective. Sakura suspected they were in a more rural part of Pennsylvania when the roads turned more windy and the drive led them through an abandoned patch of old Queen Ann and Second Empire Victorian styled homes that saw their end in the last great recession. It was another hour of driving through one dilapidated housing area into another, passing a few habited residences.

The trees became thicker on either side of the road, stretching out overhead and making a canopy of choking branches Sakura couldn't see the moonlight through. She had to slow down to follow the road when the lights started becoming few and far in between.

Sai gave a few more instructions and Sakura noted that they were heading further and further into the woodlands. The road was getting rougher too. Not a lot of travelers came this way.

"Slow down, there's going to be a turn off coming up on your right but you could miss it if you're going too fast."

And Sakura was so she did miss it the first time, but there was no one on the road or awake for miles so she put the car in reverse and went back to take the dirt road that led down into a level of woodland far wilder than what she was used to seeing on this side. The human world could be wild, but not like this.

"What are we getting into here?" Shisui asked, sensing it as well. He was agitated, twitching in his seat. Sakura swallowed and tasted bad apples in the back of her mouth.

"Don't stop, keep going." Sai touched her shoulder in encouragement.

Sakura swallowed before reply. "I couldn't turn around if I wanted to."

The trees were so close on either side of the small dirt path Sakura was worried they wouldn't be able to get through in some places. Maybe the trees had grown up too thick for a car to get between them on this old road. She really didn't want to get stuck here. Not here, not with so many bad apples rotting in the back of her mouth. She wanted honey.

Sakura saw in the distance a shape like a house standing up. She pulled ahead a little faster and the trees fell away for more open space. She grinned when she saw the cabin and yard but that grin died the second her engine did. Sakura felt it go dead under the hood before the lights turned off and the thing rattled into silence.

Sakura blinked and tried the key again and again. There was nothing she could do, no way it would turn on for her. Her car was dead, and it wasn't because of a poor battery or lack of gas.

"Sai," she called, not wanting to sound as panicked as she felt. "What is this?"

"She doesn't like visitors." Sai scooted in his seat to the door and pulled up the lock before opening it and sliding out.

Shisui cursed from his seat before doing the same. "You couldn't have told us that before we made the trip all the way out here?"

"It's not important." Sai walked over and stood in front of the driver's door. "Sakura…the car isn't going to start until she wants it to. You should come out and walk with us the rest of the way."

Sakura swallowed and felt like choking. There were rotting apples in her throat but then there was something else, something more. Magic, and then something not quite magic. It made the teeth in her throat want to come out and play. She shivered, hands white on the wheel, gripping it like a lifeline.

Sai opened her door and she didn't even flinch when he reached in to touch her shoulder. She heard him call her name when she didn't move right away. Inhaling, smelling cold air and pine, Sakura undid her seatbelt and let it roll back up on it's own while she climbed out. She listened to the way the earth shifted under her booths. She listened to the crunch of the forest floor as she stepped on it and walked away from her car. The forest around her was still, so unnaturally so. She could feel it holding it's breath like a living thing.

'Why do I feel like I just walked into a dragon's mouth?'

'Maybe we did.'

Sakura startled when she felt Shisui brush up against her. The action had been intention, as he reached for hand to hold and squeeze in reassurance. She felt his thumb run over her knuckles and suppressed the shiver.

"I don't like this Sai, I don't like this," Sakura whispered, feeling tired and small and too much like the little girl that got lost in a fairy ring all those years ago. Her eyes went to the forest floor and searched for fungi and spotted a few, but not enough to make a ring. No stones either.

Sai walked forward and pulled out his wand before creating a butterfly on his hand that glowed white and cast the surrounding area in a musty glimmer. Sakura blinked under the light as Sai turned and scanned the tree line.

"Konan!" Sai called out. He turned around and drew another glowing butterfly that took off to circle around his head. He called the name once more. "I've come apart of Danzo. Please meet with me."

Through their joined hands Sakura felt Shisui flinch. She looked up at his face and frowned. "What's wrong."

"He just said Konan, right?" When she nodded he cursed under his breath, pulling her closer and scanned the trees again. "I was afraid of that."

"You know her?" Sakura asked. "Is she a fay like you then?"

"Nothing so simple. She's not fay or witch or wizard or anything you can label so neatly. She was once a girl spirited away on the ring day from the wrong place and fairyland has not forgotten her since."

"She's a…changling?"

"No, she's just loved."

Sakura didn't understand Shisui's words or his new worry. "What? Loved? What is that supposed to mean? Loved by who?"

The world around Sakura shifted. She stumbled on uneven ground and turned, falling against Shisui's shoulder. She looked back over her own and nearly stopped breathing. A buck majestic with his ten point rack stalked through the trees, missing the tangling branches even though he was the size of a three story building. It moved through the trees and then behind it the shadowed body hovered in place, flickering from the side of one tree to the other before blinking out of sight.

Sakura felt her gut roll and turned to her opposite side and saw another monster standing between the trees, nearly eight feet high with his bird bone mask and twisted, white bone antlers. The Leshy cocked his head slightly to the side to stare at her in avian curiosity before reaching up to hold the birch rod about his head in warning. The Leshy had a body of bark and stood like something that didn't know how to die, moss growing over his clavicle and right biceps. From the waist down he wore tattered brown cloth like a skirt.

"Not who…what," Shisui whispered back. "And it's this forest that loves her."

There was something else beyond the trees and Sakura heard the small things skitter under the dead and fallen leaves like mice. There was no light except the light of a crescent moon partly blocked by silver stained clouds and a sky full of stars and stories.

"Sai," a new voice called into the clearing. Moments later a woman with beautiful cheekbones and a pierced lower lip stalked into the clearing. She wore her flannel around her waist and a black, crop tank that showed off the navel piercing. Her hair was dark, but in the moon light Sakura thought I looked blue outside of the slouching beanie.

"Konan," Sai greeted back.

She stood and crossed her arms over her chest and glared down her nose at the boy. "I thought I told you never to come back to these lands. Did you forget?"

"I'm not with Danzo. We came to seek-"

"I don't care what you want, you won't find it here. Leave before my Leshy eats you."

The forest around them trembled and Sakura knew in her gut that this had been a bad idea.

* * *

Sai looked off to the side where the creature of the forest hovered between the trees. He turned his attention back to the woman called Konan and exhaled. "I'm sure he would love to make a meal of your enemies, but we are not here to antagonize or irritate you. We need your help."

Konan took a half step back, blinking and frowning even more. "Help? What makes you think I could give you that even if I wanted to. I'm not one of your allies in the games you people play. I took myself off the board a long time ago."

"Which is why you wouldn't know what has happened to Danzo or the wizard Sarutobi."

Konan waved a hand dismissively through the air. "Don't care."

"But Danzo has overthro-"

The Leshy between the trees crouched and screamed like a dying bird, making Sakura's spine tingle in warning. It had cut Sai off but it's aggressive stance shifted into something else as the bird skull face peered down at Sakura. It was angry or maybe just irritated. Still, it stayed between the trees.

"Like I said," Konan began. "I don't care. You really never understood anything, Sai. Out of all the changelings I've met I've probably liked you the least. This is the last time I want to have to warn you."

Shisui growled in annoyance, releasing Sakura's hand to take up a stand along Sai and address the girl Konan. "Please, we just need a place to stay and hide for a little while. We've been hunted."

Sakura felt something wet and smelled blood. She cursed as another painful roll made it feel like her insides were being minced. She held her elbows to her stomach and bent over, feeling her knees knock. She shivered and felt sweat on her forehead. 'Shit, not now.'

"Who is this, Sai? Another Uchiha?" Konan turned her nose up at the sight of the two boys. "Never thought I'd see you working with a fay willingly. But now I really want to see you get out of here. I hate fay even more than changlings."

Sakura slowly sank to the ground, arms wrapped around her as her hip rustled the leaves, followed by her shoulder and the side of her face. She could feel the stain of blood and knew she had been too late to catch one of her more sudden periods. She should have anticipated the stress triggering it early.

She sucked in a breath and shivered, feeling her body lose warmth before a wave of heat warmed her body. Some strange magic it was to be human. Why was a period more painful than an encounter with a horned woman.

Sakura felt something behind her and looked up to see the bird skull mask of the Leshy towering over her. She barely breathed while it leaned down and stretched his tree like hands towards her. His fingers grew like branches around her and Sakura felt herself being caught.

'Worst luck ever,' Sakura thought before also adding, 'I hope no one notices the blood stains cause that would be super embarrassing.'

"What are you doing to her? You said you would let us go if we just left us alone. Put her down!" Shisui's voice was tight and panicked as he startled among the dead leaves. Sai held his breath and didn't move.

"Who is she, Sai?" Konan asked, tone clipped and harsher than before. "She's human."

"How could you tell?" Sai asked, voice too calm for a boy watching his favorite person be wrapped up in living branches from a Leshy's hands.

Konan stalked down from her spot on the small ridge and pushed the two boys aside to approach her Leshy. The forest spirit lowered his hands and Sakura stirred between them like a bird in a nest, still holding her stomach and riding out a hot flash. With a jerk of her chin she motioned for the Leshy to follow her with Sakura in his hands.

"You two can follow behind us," Konan barked at Sai and Shisui.

"Why is he carrying her? What's wrong with Sakura? Why can't she walk?" Shisui pestered, dashing over to the Leshy's side and then back so he was too far away to get smacked before flickering back over to the Leshy's opposite side. He tried to see into the creature's hands but dashed away when it cried like an angry bird and lifted Sakura higher.

"Shisui, just shut up and follow Sai," Sakura groaned, setting her jaw against the pain that made her eyes go wide. Cramps would roll over her and be done soon, that wasn't a big deal, but she hated to think of how embarassed she would be when she would have to ask to clean up.

"Follow close, black rabbit," Konan barked, picking something off from where it leaned against a tree and shouldering it. Through the branches Sakura could see it was a rifle or a shotgun of some sort. It was hard to tell in the dark.

Sai and Shisui followed close behind while the black balls of soot that hid under the leaves chirped out in their own language as they raced along the forest floor ahead of them. Before they left the tree line for the clearing in front of the house a second Leshy came out from between the trees to loom over the two boys. This one had a ash white bear mask and was heavier set. On his shoulder a smaller Leshy crouched with a mouse skull mask.

Konan hopped ahead of the group and opened the doors to the front of her house before holding them open for the boys to slip inside. The smallest mouse skull Leshy hoping off the shoulder it sat upon and scurried into the house behind the boys. When Konan didn't follow them inside Shisui turned on his heel sharply and glared at the nest around Sakura.

"What are you going to do with Sakura?"

"Shut up and sit down. She'll be fine. Just wait on the couch like Sai is doing and you'll get some food or something." Konan took a step back on the porch and grabbed onto the wrist of the bird Leshy. "Watch the rabbit one, Roach," Konan said, speaking to the mouse Leshy.

Without another word Konan pulled herself up onto the arm of her Leshy and nodded towards a window on the second floor. It stretched and grew like a tree towards the open window, reaching his hands into the open window so Sakura was no longer outside. Konan followed the sweating girl into the bathroom and waved the wood spirit away, closing the window behind them.

"You look like shit right now," Konan began.

"I feel like it, too," Sakura laughed, pushing herself up and keeping her legs tightly pressed. "Sorry you had to see that."

Konan glared lightly. "I'm a human like you, and much less a girl, so don't think this is something I don't understand or something you have to apologize for. You have napkins?"

Sakura flushed and reached into one of her pockets for an unopened napkin she lifted from another woman's purse. It would work. Konan nodded and stood, moving towards the door to the bathroom. "You look smaller than me, but I'll get you a change of clothes. Roach can wash your old things and get those back to you later. I'll be back with ibuprofen."

Sakura flushed before holding up a hand and speaking quickly. "I have things to change into in my car. There's a green duffle bag, it has unicorn patches on the side, and I have clean things in there for me. If I could just have that I wouldn't need to put you out."

Konan watched Sakura for a moment in the doorway before nodding and closing the door behind her. Sakura breathed out in relief before getting out of her dirty things and seeing to her needs. She was grateful she didn't throw up this time. It could have been worse.

Fay didn't have periods or bleed once a month like human girls did. It was so odd and uncomfortable to go through puberty the first time in the fairylands where she was treated like a pariah for what happened every cycle.

They gave her things and squared her away in a tent where no one could hear or see or smell her until her week was over. Eventually they started giving her medication that made it every other month instead of every month, and by the time the races came she was old enough to take the soup that stopped her menstrual cycles altogether.

After the games it was like she was one of them. Almost.

Sakura bit her lip when another roll of pain made her double over. This part was the worst because of how she still remembered the shame and embarrassment that came the first time she learned about her body. Sick, ugly, disgusting humans. What fay could fall in love with something like that? Shisui was a silly fool that didn't know what he was talking about.

There was a knock on the door and then it opened a crack for her bag to be tossed in along with a bottle of pills and some water. Sakura swallowed, feeling her eyes wet in relief.

"Thank you," she called through the door.

Konan didn't say anything, but the footsteps echoed away.

Minutes later Sakura was cleaning up and neatly tucking her ruined things up into themselves to hide the stains. The ibuprofen was starting to kick in, but Sakura knew it would be a little while longer before the rolls of her crams abated and another four to five days before the bleeding ended.

She didn't want to think about the use of her powers and how for all this time they would be beyond her reach if she wanted to transform. She couldn't become a rabbit when she was menstruating. She was useless to the boys right now.

She opened the door and stepped out, soiled things in her hands. The bedroom she had walked into was empty and she started to panic like a teenager on her first day in high school all over again.

Something played with the shoelaces of her boots and Sakura jerked back, nearly stepping on the black critters that darted around her feel like balls of soot. One grabbed for her shoestrings and she slipped out of her boots as quickly as she could. They darted inside and then ran right out.

Shadow spirits, the creatures of the absences of the forest. They started to chirp and crawl up her leg, sliding down and crawling back down every few inches.

"What do you want-this?" Sakura held out the dirty things and they chirped louder. She set her things down and they swarmed in on it, becoming a black mass that seeped into the floorboard cracks and disappeared.

"Helpful little buggers, eh?"

Sakura looked up and Konan was there, far off in the doorway to the hallway. Sakura noted that the room seemed pieced together when Konan stood in contrast to the slanted angle of the doorframe. It was an old house but something about Konan seemed ageless.

"You're human?" Sakura breathed, almost doubtful.

There was a quirk of the lip before Konan lifted her chin and nodded. She reached up and tugged off her beanie and tossed it onto the bed. She ran a hand up into her hair and fluffed it up from underneath. "Yeah, I'm human. Bleed red and nothing else if that's what you mean."

Sakura flushed, thinking of her earlier incident. "Thank you for your help."

Konan regarded her with narrowed eyes before replying. "Sai tried to tell me your story but I told him to shut it so I could get it from you. If the sprites did their job those boys should be passed out on the couch by now so don't ask for them."

Sakura swallowed. "This is your home, you've every right to be pissed. I would have insisted on a hotel if I knew where Sai was taking us. We've been a mess since Hallow's Eve when Danzo overthrew Sarutobi."

Konan winced condescendingly and wagged a finger. "Yeah, you're saying the same thing as the brat but I already told him I don't care what happened to those old farts. No external event will change my mind and make me want to keep you here. I'm asking you because I want to know your story. Not what happened to the others or their tuffs, but what are you doing mixed up in all of it. The rabbit seemed smitten with you, but you don't look stupid enough to fall for a fay."

Now it was Sakura's turn to smirk. "Hardly. I was supposed to just be the accountant and had no idea the fay would be involved when I took the job with Sarutobi."

Konan seemed to perk up and gestured to a couch at the foot of the bed for Sakura to sit while she pulled up a chair from the vanity to sit at. It was easy to talk to Konan and before Sakura knew what had happened, she found herself spilling everything out to the older looking girl.

Sakura recalled the events leading up to her working for Sarutobi. She talked about how she had been tricked into revealing she was a White Rabbit and the old wizard tried to help her recover from the trauma of her first childhood. She talked about the training, about Itachi, about the horned woman, about Shisui coming around, and then about the party where everything went to hell.

Sakura touched her chest and pulled her hand away with the wrath that held the last of her icons. The silver bell etched with skulls and unicorns made no sound as Sakura turned it over in her hands. The Foxglove Bell.

"I used Harrowing magic to use it since I was still mostly drained and it broke one of my victory icons in payment. I used that icon to seal up the memories of myself from members of my court. It's also the reason we look such a mess. Because of what I did, the taboo of stealing a fay's memories, the Fox Court has members out looking for me. I only made it worse for those two."

Konan snorted over the head of the chair. "If anything those two are lucky to be alive. Without you I don't think they would be as well off. Even Sai, he'd be sitting pretty with Danzo, but he wouldn't be anywhere near as human as he now seems. Three years ago when he first came here with Danzo he was worse than most fay prince."

"You've known Sai that long?"

Konan shrugged, pulling the chair out from under her as she stands. "I guess, but I wouldn't say I really 'know' the kid. I don't 'know' anyone. I live out here on my own for that reason. Sai tell you who I was?"

Sakura shook her head. "Only that you didn't like Danzo and you might be able to help."

"I don't know about helping, but yeah, I hate Danzo. He was interested in the court I came from and I was interested in never having anything to do with that world ever again. I tripped into the wrong fairy ring and ended up on the other side for a few years. I just wanted to get home though, and one day that became possible because of this forest."

Sakura clasped her hands and leaned forward, eyes wide and ready for the story. Konan caught the look of admiration and huffed, grabbing the back of the chair she had been sitting in and squeezed the wood.

"You know how our world is a reflection world of the fay world and how different parts are thinner and easier to pass over, lay lines, mirrors, sacred sites, forests…?" When Sakura nodded Konan went on, holding up a hand that carried scurrying shadow sprites. "Yeah, well I ran until I found one of those and these guys on this side helped me cross over and kept me safe when fay came hunting. They were pretty gentle with you, but these little cuties can be just as scary as the Leshy. You don't want to ever see their teeth."

As if to mock her or maybe because they really didn't understand, two of the five black sprits hanging onto her hand opened up and showed off rows of teeth shaped more like needles. One of the two made a kissing sound before closing his mouth and running around in circles atop Konan's palm.

"They seem to like you too."

"I…" Sakura stumbled over the words in her mind. "I've never seen such creatures on this side of the worlds before. I thought such things only existed in the fay lands."

"You only see them now because I'm out. They would sleep for another hundred years if it wasn't for a _caretaker_. It's nothing special, and I promise you I don't have any powers that make me anything other than human, but I take care of the forest here and these guys just seem to multiply for it. In the beginning there were only a few but now there's too many to even name."

"What makes them like a person, or prefer one person over the other?" Sakura mused, watching the black critters move and dance on Konan's hand. She remembered too clearly how the fay saw her in the beginning. She had assumed most supernatural things saw humans as dirty or boring.

Konan shook her hand and the little black spirits went flying with cries of glee or shock or both. "Hell if I know. I just weed the place around here and tell intruders like Sai to piss off. Speaking of intruders, I was rude and didn't even offer you anything to eat before I made you talk. You're hungry, right?"

Sakura looked out the window at the dark sky that looked like it was as black as it was ever going to get. She felt tired in her bones and wondered how much of that was because of her period and how much of that was because of the time.

"Actually, and I hate to do this, but I just want to pass out. You have a couch I could borrow?"

Konan shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest while looking towards the door. "I've got one downstairs but both those goons are asleep on it and I never anticipated guests so there's nothing like an extra bed either. Sorry, but if it's okay with you, mine is big enough for two. You can use this one here."

Sakura felt light in the back of her head and wanted more and more to sleep the more she thought of it. "I'm sorry for putting you out like this."

Konan waved her off. "It's nothing. I'm going to see to the leshy stuck outside and I'll be back later. You should turn in first. In the morning I'll talk with the rest of you about what I can do to help you with your friends stuck with Danzo. You seem to care for your friend at least."

"I owe a lot to Ino and she's precious to me," Sakura nodded.

Konan grinned and took a step backwards, towards the door. "Yeah, I'll see what I can do, but no promises. Don't wait up for me, Socks."

Sakura blinked. "Socks?"

Konan grinned and eyed Sakura's socks, left exposed after the shadow sprits forced her out of her boots. The socks were mismatched. One was blue with mermaids swimming with narwhals and the other was green with UFO's beaming up dinosaurs. Sakura blushed.

"Night, Socks," Konan called, heading out into the hallway and down the stairs.

* * *

There's a drumming noise inside my head  
That throws me to the ground  
I swear that you should hear it  
It makes such an all mighty sound

_-Drumming Song_   
_Florence + the Machine_

* * *

_AN: Rough no edit adventure above! I'll maybe (lol) come back and fix a few things, but I need some time away from it first. :)_

_THERE IS THIS AMAZING PIECE OF ARTWORK that you should check out. Actually, there's a few that are amazing and I wish links work. If you want to check out some stuff you can go to my tumblr: vesperlionheart . tumblr. com and check out the tags for White Rabbit. There's a lot of stuff for it now. This was going to be a shorter chapter, but I got inspired this week and made it another few thousand words longer._

I hope you enjoyed and stick around. Please review and let me know what you thought. I'm truly and honestly trying to better myself and want to work on this with that sort of goal.

Vesper Chan


	5. Chapter 5

Sakura dreams but it is not her dream she moves through.

The world around her is barren and the trees are bare. Sakura can smell smoke in the distance and realizes with sudden clarity that she is in the world of Itachi Uchiha. It was the same as when she last trained with him She had broke down crying somewhere near and he had held her on his arms at that spot.

“This isn’t happening.”

She turned and saw new aspects of the world, new shades of color showing activity. It’s a dangerous thing to do, but Sakura feels compelled to follow those colors, knowing what is likely at the end of them. It’s a fay dream world, but it’s still a dream world made out of nothing real. 

She wont die here.

She sees Itachi standing in the middle of a field of eggshell colored Queen Ann’s Lace. The dull white flowers make a sea around his shins. In his hands he holds the limp neck of a red fox, pink tongue lolling out of his broken mouth. Sakura felt her blood grow cold at the sight.

Her court had been made out of foxes and fay that ran in the body of foxes. Itachi holding the dead body of one was too much like what she remembered seeing in the games where hunters hunted hunters from opposite courts while the rabbits hid and ran.

That’s right. Itachi was her enemy, she needed to run from him.

She must have gasped or made some sort of sound because he turned to her then and his eyes widened. Itachi reached for her, saying something, moving his lips and using his mouth to call out to her, but there was no sound in this world.One hand still held the dead fox but the other reached for her, dropping blood from God knows what.

She knew he was saying her name the same way she knew she couldn’t let him touch her. Connection in a dream such as this one couldn’t mean anything good. She knew the stories too well to not be frightened of his outstretched hand.

She ran.

He chased.

Sakura woke up.

‘ _All you ever do is run_.’

 

Sakura feels congestion in her brain and breaths deep before stirring. When he rolls over in bed she notices the covers are messy but empty. The day is not young. She can tell by the shadows shrinking across the floorboards that the sun’s been up for several hours. She’s been sleeping this long?

‘Your body needs the rest…not to mention your mind.’ The voice is mocking and Sakura grimaces at the imaginary tone.

Sakura changes out of her night things and dresses for a new day, carrying her boots downstairs with her. Her feet are bare on the cold, wood floorboards. The house isn’t well insulated and her toes curl over the edge of each step, freezing a little bit without the protection of her socks. 

Sakura steps off the stairs and turns to see an unnatural growth reaching up from the floors to retrain a passes out Shisui while Sai reads calmly from the couch. He looks up when he hears her stop and puts his book away.

“What happened to Shisui?” Sakura breathed, hesitant to speak too loudly and wake the fay from his restricted slumber.

“He became upset and needed to be restrained when he believed you were hurt.” Sai paused to look her over and frown. “He said he smelled your blood.”

“I’m not hurt, as you can plainly see,” Sakura said, raising her hands and turning to the side to show herself off. She held her socks in one hand and her boots in the other.

Sai watched her as she sat down on the edge of a nearby armchair to cross her ankle over her knee and slip on her new socks. The ones she had been wearing yesterday, along with her clothes, had been spirited away to no doubt be cleaned and returned like her soiled things from yesterday. Waking up, Sakura had found them at the foot of the bed, smelling fresh and neatly folded.

Sakura looked up before grabbing the loose laces of her left boot. She nodded at Shisui. “Are we going to wake him up or should we leave him until Konan gets back?”

Sai produced his wand and tapped the bark of the plant encasing Shisui. It shivered under the magic’s touch before beginning to shrink. Soon Shisui would be loose on the floor and free to wake up. Sakura already heard him stirring.

Sai spoke before the other boy could wake. “Shisui was not wrong, you were bleeding, and we both saw you were in pain yesterday. What happened?”

Sakura cut her eyes from Shisui to Sai. “You think I was hurt?” she asked.

“I think you were at some point yesterday, but I can’t tell how or determine a plausible time when you could have taken injury.”

“And you’re always so observant about these things, right?” Sakura teased, tying off her last boot with a low bow to her shoelaces. It was snug around the ankles the way it should be.

“You are avoiding the question.”

Sakura rolled her shoulders, listening as Shisui melted into a limp form on the hardwood floor. He murmured and began to stir. In a few minutes he would be awake but she could see some of the thinner branches pulling out of where they pierced his skin and drugged his blood.

“There is nothing to answer. You said it yourself, you were watching and you never saw a chance for anyone to do anything,” Sakura said.

“Then where did the blood come from?” 

Sakura grumbled. “You’re not going to just drop this, are you?”

“Shisui will be more persistent than I.”

“I’ll bet,” Sakura snorted, turning her eyes to the stirring form on the floor. Shisui was starting to rise. She heard him make mumbles, but nothing he said came out sounding like actual words. His speech was too slurred.

“Morning Sleeping Beauty,” Sakura laughed, cupping the side of her face with her palm as she rested her hand and arm on the edge of her knee. She leaned forward and grinned. “You okay, now?”

“Sakura.” Shisui pushed himself up and took a single step before needing to readjust himself and walk closer to her. In his hands he held a few splinters from something that happened last night. He flexed his fingers and they fell away. “You’re fine.”

“As I already told Sai, I am unharmed and you were just overreacting. I’m well, no injuries, no wounds, no trauma for you to deal with. I’m as good as they come.” 

As if to drive her point home Sakura stretched her arms high above her head and didn’t flinch as the hem of her shirt caught and rose the barest amount above her midriff line. Shisui looked away when he saw the scrap of peach flesh between her top and bottom. His gaze returned a second later, along with a breath of color high on his cheeks.

With her hands above her head Sakura thought she would be fine, but it wasn’t more than two seconds before a twinge of pain made her drop her hands to her lap and grit through the roll of another triggered cramp. Nothing would be as bad as yesterday, but it was still only a day later so she needed to be careful.

Sai frowned and Shisui surged forward to grab her wrists and lower her arms.“What was that?” he growled over her hands. Looking all over her body for the mark or wound he thought she was covering up. “You flinched, I saw it. What happened to you? I smelled blood.”

“Yeah, Sai told me about it, but you guys are both making a bigger deal out of it than you think. I was never injured but yeah, I was a little sick yesterday and felt terrible about it.”

“The blood?” Sai pressed.

Sakura winced, not seeing a way out of this without the truth. Maybe it was time for the both of them to know that little bit more. “You’re not wrong, but it wasn’t because of an injury. That’s…normal.”

Sai snorted in derision, obviously not believing her. Shisui still held her hands and his fingers traced patterns along the underside of her wrist’s veins. Sakura glared at the boy before yanking her hands out of Shisui’s. “Take a seat, I don’t want to have to repeat myself after this.”

By the time Konan came in from the outside to join them both boys looked ready to dry heave.

Sai glanced up at the other woman in the room and then scooted closer to Sakura, whispering, ‘all women?’ With a shrug Sakura nodded, choosing not to go into detail about the exceptions this time, and stood to greet their host.

“Good morning,” Sakura said.

Konan smirked out of the side of her mouth while letting the canvas bag on her shoulder slide off. It landed beside her boots with a dull thud. To Sakura, it sounded like rocks, but there were any number of things it could actually be.

Like yesterday, Konan was dressed in loose fitted jeans dirty at the knees but not ripped. A red and blue flanel was tied around her waist and a black tank top hugged the upper half of her body. It rode up a bit over her navel and showed off the silver of the piercing through her belly button to match the one below her lip. Glaring silver that smelled like iron also speared her ears on either side. There was no beanie this time, but Konan’s hair was up in a messy bun and pinned back with colored yellow and green bobby pins.

When Konan spoke her voice was lighter, looser than it had been yesterday. “More like good afternoon, you slept through breakfast. You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

“You think we would be so rude while we were out?” Sai asked, recovering faster than Shisui.

Behind him, the older fay boy still looked like he was trying to make sense out of the mess that was his thoughts. Sakura almost felt bad for him.

Konan kicked her bad off to the side with her heel and waved for them to follow her into the kitchen. Sakura went first and Konan put her to work washing and chopping peppers for omelets. Shisui was sent out to gather the eggs and Sai was given things to set the table with.

With the noon sun climbing the sky Konan sizzled bacons and flipped omelets for the group. There was bread in the bread box soft enough to sleep on. With ginger butter and honey spread it was better than most things Sakura remembered eating. Shisui also seemed oddly drawn to the honey.

“I talked it over with the others. You can stay until you’re ready to move on, but this isn’t an open invitation to lounge about as long as you want.”

“Others?” Sakura echoed. She blinked and then remembered the Leshy and the shadow sprites. “Ah.”

Konan nodded, cutting into the bark of her bacon with her knife. “No offense, but I feel the jitters awfully when outsiders are in this place, like they’re going to drag the rest of the world in behind them. You gonna promise me that won’t happen? Nothin’ is going to follow you here?”

“We’ll move on,” Shisui said.

He reached for another spoonful of honey to drip over his third slice of bread. Konan glared at his gluttony but didn’t bat an eye when Sakura did the same thing.

“We couldn’t stay here that long anyway,” said Sakura. “Ino and the others still need to be rescued. We said we would be thinking of ways to free them once we had a place to stay.”

“You know of any fun enemies the old man had?” Shisui asked, looking to Sai.

If Sai took offense with the tone he didn’t let it show in his expression or tone. Sakura noted that the young boy was getting better about being honest about how he felt and showing his feelings, but there was still a long way to go to undo the trauma of his own time in the fairy realms.

“He had plenty of enemies, few are left alive, and fewer are willing to work with anyone opposed to the alchemist. Direct opposition would be _suicide_.”

“We know that,” Sakura said, looking sideways at Shisui who seemed a bit more drawn up at the news. “Rabbits weren’t meant to fight, but we have our own skills that could be useful if we are smart about how to go forward. Do we know how we could free Ino and the others if-best case-we got in there without being detected?”

Sai leaned back in his seat and began to tap the dips in the table, eyes straying anywhere it wished as his brain searched for an answer to give her. “Maybe,” he said after a minute. “He would know the second it was done and depending on how close he is to the site he would be on top of us before they could walk. I’m not fond of a plan that gets us in there but can’t get us out.”

“Agreed,” Sakura sighed. “How are the ivy coffins undone?”

“The ivy can be burned away, but the magic that makes them slumber has to be canceled out with another’s intentional magic. Basically, however much magic he put into keeping that person asleep would be how much you would need to burn through to wake them up and free them, which is why he would know the second you tried something.”

“How much magic goes into something like that?” Sakura asked.

“It’s not a curse, so nothing extraordinary, but if you were planning on freeing Sarutobi you can bet there will be multiple layers to his spell. Ino and the others would be easy enough to free without draining yourself, but Sarutobi might be someone you need to leave behind.”

“Can’t do that.”

Sai didn’t seem deterred by her quick reply. “You might need to.”

“I can’t just leave him behind.”

“You sure he wouldn’t do the same?” Sai pushed away the clean plate in front of him, ignoring the way Konan was watching from her seat at the opposite end of the table. “He might have been trying to help you once, but he is practical if nothing else and he would not take the risk or jeopardize the life of his closest friends for you.”

“So what, we leave him there?” Sakura felt her throat tighten.

“Maybe. There is nothing to say we can’t go back for him at a later time, after we make allies and free those we can. We should be practical about this. We also can’t drain ourselves trying to free people. We need to be able to flee if it all goes south.”

“We couldn’t stand up to anyone if it came to a fight,” Shisui added, dragging his finger through the leftover honey on his plate and scraping it off his thumb with his teeth before sucking it clean. He didn’t look up or make eye contact with any of them. To Sakura he sounded irritated.

“So…” Konan drawled, looking between the three strangers at her table. “You’re okay with him killing a sleeper or whatever, just as long as you get your people back? That right?”

“There’s not much else we can do on our own. We were lucky enough to get out with our lives on All Hallow’s Eve. We’ve been doing nothing but running since then, and not just from Danzo but the Fox Court as well.”

“I’m not blaming you,” Konan said, raising her hands, palms up. “I just was trying to understand.”

“It’s a marvelous situation to be in,” Shisui added in a low, slow tone of voice.

Konan shrugged, pushing her chair back and standing. “I wouldn’t know.” She grabbed her plate and took Sakura’s. “You want to help out you’re free to join me, otherwise don’t make a mess of things here.”

Sakura grabbed Sai and Shisu’s plates to join Konan at the sink where they lightly rinsed and stacked the plates off to the side. In mere heartbeats the shadows sprits were seeping out from the cracks and descending on the plates to pull them away and finish the washing on their own.

“Without having to worry about chores I’ve got plenty of time to tend to the woods.”

Sakura looked up at the girl beside her. Konan stood a head taller than Sakura, even without the added height of her boots. “What kind of work in the woods?”

“You feeling up for a hike?”

“N-Now?”

Konan didn’t answer, but instead left for the hallway to grab her fabric bag off the floor. “Come if you want, rest here if you would rather do that. Either way, it’s your choice, Socks.”

Shisui wouldn’t look up at her when she glanced back over her shoulder but Sai waved her off. “I have messenger hawks to script. I will see if one of the less nasty enemies of Danzo is willing to be our friend.”

“Fine, I’ll see you later.” She looked from Sai and then frowned at Shisui. “I’ll be back.”

Sakura didn’t waste any more time on a long goodbye. It was cold and unlike Konan, Sakura couldn’t get away with just a single flannel and a tank top, so she pulled on the wrinkled army green jacket that was patched in places and decorated in others.

It was light outside in the clearing in front of the house and nothing seemed to stir. It looked so natural and normal Sakura began to doubt anything extraordinary lived in the forest at all. But then the trees got thicker and taller and closer together. The roots rose up higher out of the ground and the branches sagged heavier and heaver as the canopy thickened. There was a dull echoing of forest life as the trees moaned in the atmosphere around them. Birds sang sharp and soft, low and high, here and there.

The forest buzzed with varied life, but it wasn’t until they were further in, so far that the sun’s light was only an imitation bleeding through a dozen layers of leaves, that the Leshy began to show up.They were slow and tired, resting more than moving.

“Are they nocturnal?” Sakura asked, voice hushed in reverent whisper.

Konan reached out and ran her hand over the rough bark of a tree on Leshy leaned against. “Mostly. They don’t sleep the same way we do, but they are most active under a moon. The sun is too nice to move under I think. They would much rather grow just like another tree with the sun on them.”

There was a soft tremble and Sakura turned to see an elk with a rack as wide as a truck and as tall as a house loom between the trees. He was tall enough to be a building, but the trees never hindered him somehow. The sight of him, even just glimpsed through the trees, stole the breath right out of Sakura.

“I never thought I would see such things in this world, on this side I mean. In the fairy realms this isn’t that big a deal, but we’re not in the fairy realms, right?”

Konan shook her head, expression soured. “Not at all. Human world as best I can call it. But it is a dip.”

“A dip?” Sakura knew what the word meant, but somehow suspected Konan was using it differently.

"This land is sort of like that dip in the floor that leads to a drain. Stuff just collects here like the magic is a sort of water running against the path of least resistance.There's not a lot of places in the world where magic can get caught aside from the Lay Lines and the Thin Places."

Sakura remembered hearing similar things from fay on the other side. They just used different words. “ _This_ is a Thin Place? I thought those were all in the old world.“

Konan seemed like such a devil may care punk based sould on outward apperance, but when she spoke in the woods her voice dropped and turned melodious and ancient. She spoke with authority and even the trees seemed to turn in and listen. It wasn’t hard to see what Sai meant when he said the forest loved her.

“We have so many of them here in America, more than any one court knows about. It’s a mess on this continent. Over 400 years ago the leftover gods and monsters came crawling from their dominions to take up plots in America. New fairy courts sprang up, those pagan gods established new pacts for harvests. Witches tried to make this their own land too.” Konan reached her hand out and moved it from the tree to the face of the Leshy to stroke.“People brought with them their traditions, customs, and beliefs. Their monsters came following close behind.”

Sakura knew her fair share of Fay lore, and had head them talk about the monsters outside their boundaries, lumping them all into one category marked, ‘other.’ To them, there were the fay and the humans and then there were the ‘others’ better off not mentioning. Nothing else was worth their notice…at least that’s how it was with the fay in the Fox Court.

“But no one believes anymore, so why aren’t they disappearing?”

Konan turned to look back over her shoulder at Sakura with a puzzled expression. “Do you disappear when no one believes in you?”

Sakura felt meek in that moment. “That’s not how it works?”

“Belief is only a thing that makes the veil thinner and their reach stronger. I think for the fay it’s different. They derive power from contracts with humans and beliefs. Their souls are different. Leshy are not such useless things. They will be here long after I am gone just as they were here long before I was born.”

The creature under her hand stirred, leaning into her touch the way a cat or dog would when being put. Konan smiled and tugged on the straps to her fabric bag. Reaching inside the opening she grabbed something round and pulled it out before offering it to the Leshy. It hummed in delight before accepting the wrapped ball into a space underneath it’s mask where it’s true face lay. 

Konan reached in for another one but tossed it to Sakura, who caught it on reflex. Looking down, Sakura saw the ball was made up of pressed moss and wildflower and wrapped with grass yarn.

“This is what they eat?”

Konan pat her Leshy one last time before moving back over to Sakura’s side. “Sometimes. It’s a treat to them at least when it’s all compressed into a ball like that. They seem to like it. Wanna find one to feed?”

Sakura turned the ball over in her hand and then held it closer to her chest, nodding and following after Konan.

The Leshy came out for Konan easily enough, but were a bit more hesitant to reach for Sakura until she sat and waited in the shadows. It was like waiting for deer or some other untamed animal. The one that approached her was a Leshy from the first night, the one with the bird skull mask. He didn’t seem much braver than the others, but came out to meet her after smelling the air that passed over her. He must have recognized her.

He reached for the ball with his hands and then hesitated before stretching out his face, a long neck of black that ended in pale white bone. He turned his mask to the side and bit the ball out of her hands before snapping back and pushing the treat into his mouth with stick like hands. Sakura shook her fingers a little, feeling moisture like tree sap there. When she looked down it shimmered yellow.

Honey.

Sakura looked up and saw a beebuzz out from a hole in the Leshy’s shoulder and then another. It was quiet, but there were bees making a hive in his shoulder.

It was when a bee flew so close she could hear it in her ear did she realize the taste of magic wasn’t overpowering her senses. The rotten apples weren’t in her throat anymore. It must be something that’s triggered only when the Leshy use their powers or a barrier is tripped-like the one Sai told her to drive over.

“Sakura? Is there something wrong?”

Startled, Sakura looked up and shook her head, feeling the breeze sharper on her cheeks. She reached up and felt tear streaks. She had been crying.

“No, it’s fine. I’m fine.”

 

Konan was insistent on them staying for the full week, since it would be that long before Sakura could use her magic again. It was beyond Sakura’s reach until the bleeding cycle was over.

‘It’ll be pretty sluggish if you use it really close to the end date too,’ Konan had said. ‘Be careful and give it a day or two grace period.’

Sai could neither confirm nor deny the other woman’s words.

Shisui ran out more often than than not, seeking allies and friends he could rely on, but each night he came back it was with a look of masked humiliation. Only for Sakura did he put on a brave face and laugh about finding someone next time he went out. 

Sakura got the impression that Shisui didn’t have many friends to begin with, but even less after Itachi trapped half the Uchiha court in Ivy. She didn’t care, said she would help out too, but that only seemed to pain him more. He wanted to say something when she offered to help, but held back his words when he caught sight of Sai watching from the couch at the end of the room or Konan from the stairwell.

A week turned into nine and then ten days. Sakura thought they would be kicked out or pressured to leave, but Sai and Shisui were so scarce that Konan claimed she ended up not minding. She took Sakura with her to care for the creatures in the forest, such as the the Leshy, the sprites, the brownies, the elder beasts, the fogglets, and the goblin like creatures that kept to themselves and their darkness.

Sakura dreamed rarely, but when she did she could feel another force pressing up against her dreams and tainting them with essence until they became nightmares.

Sakura jerked awake from such a dream on the eleventh night. Konan was dead asleep in the bed they buddy shared and didn’t stir with Sakura’s waking. Breathing hard and trying not to, Sakura slipped from the bed as silent as possible. She tred on the tips of her toes out of the room and brace against the wall for support as she walked down the stairwell to the kitchen for water.

Sakura felt her hands shiver against the wall, barely able to feel the wood under her fingertips. More dead foxes, more dead birds…black birds. Oh, but there were other things too. There was a river of blood wherever Itachi walked and Sakura almost believed it was something that came from somewhere in Itachi’s heart. Wherever he tread the earth turned red like a curse. 

But he looked so sad, like he was about to break like glass and cry forever.

Sakura stopped, hand on the wall and looked out into the living room where Sai was asleep on the couch and Shisui was nowhere to be seen. His blankets were a scattered mess over the recliner and floor. Sakura reached for one and frowned when she felt how cold it was. He had been gone a while.

The concerns of Sakura’s hearts shifted and she stalked outside, ignoring the cold biting at her toes or cutting through her thin nightgown material. It had been a borrowed thing from Konan she was thankful for, since more of her sleeping things were ratty and old.

Sakura walked out, arms crossed over her chest and jaw set, ignoring the cold. There was a tug in her heart that told her Shisui was close and she didn’t need to go far to reach him. But it was the same tug that told her Itachi would break soon and cry for how red the world was around him, so Sakura didn’t know if she could trust the tug in her heart.

A bee buzzed close to her cheek and she startled, knowing it was too cold and too late for one to be awake. It felt faint by her cheek. But the Leshy was coming out from the trees and took the bee up into his shoulder and bent down to be close to Sakura, searching for another treat on her.

“I’m sorry, I came out looking for my friend. I don’t have anything for you today,” Sakura said, running her hand down the black of his neck, the part she assumed was his actual flesh.

The Leshy shivered and then turned away, taking a few steps before stopping and looking back over his shoulder, watching to see if she would follow. Sakura picked up the ends of her nightgown and followed him over branch and bush through the spaces between the trees. She got caught behind a fallen log she couldn’t easily scale in the dress and the Leshy reached down to grab and carry her the rest of the way, his arms growing into a nest of branches to cradle and protect her.

Not far from the house the Leshy took her to a clearing where Shisui sat in solitude, feet dangling over the ledge a bolder made on the bank of a dried up creek. His head was down, neck bent, hands limp in his lap.

“Shisui?” Sakura called, stepping down out of the Leshy’s hands. The branches retreated like curled up fingers as she touched down.

He jerked at the sound of her voice and she saw his eyes wide before he turned away and rubbed the heels of his hands over his face and pulled his legs up to twist around. Sakura climbed up the side of the bolder and pulled herself over to where he sat just as he lowered his hands.

“What are you doing out of bed at this hour? You need to rest. You weren’t able to transform yesterday.”

“I was able. I just felt woozy and decided not to push it. Besides, there was no reason to transform-I just wanted to see if I _could_ and I _can_ so the matter is settled. What are you doing out here so late looking like a kicked puppy? You’ve been distant for a while.”

“You’re imagining things. It’s just….weird being here under another person’s roof that I don’t know. I’m not…It’s not like how you think it is,” Shisui struggled to say. The words sounded fake in her ears.

“You’re upset about something.”

“That’s not very fay of me,” Shisui chuckled.

“I’ve seen fay get upset over things. You’re not that special.”

Shisui tried to grin but it came out sad looking. “But Fay are different from humans, right? We don’t feel the same way about things as you do.” His voice was quasi mocking as he wave a hand between them. “I should be fine, right? I’m _fay_.”

Sakura didn’t know what it was but she knew something was wrong with Shisui. He was untethered in some way. A part of him reminded her of a too honest drunk, spilling secrets in sappy despair.

“Something is troubling you. Something’s wrong, I can tell.”

“But it shouldn’t be,” Shisui whispered, leaning in and grabbing for her wrists. “I shouldn’t be troubled about something so trivial. I saw my cousin murder his whole family and slaughter enemy fay without batting an eye. I’ve seen fay better than me murder children and suffer just as much loss in battle. I shouldn’t be so troubled about something so insignificant as my own, useless position. I shouldn’t feel at all, remember?”

“Is this because of what I said at the gas station or is this because you’re not able to make contact with any of your friends?” Sakura asked slowly. She thought each word over before pronouncing it. She thought back to what he told her in the car, how he felt for her, and what she had replied with. Maybe she hadn’t been sensitive enough with him back then if he was still so torn up about it, but Sakura suspected there were other things eating at him too.

Sai had found them Konan, and was sending out ink birds daily. Sakura could put them up in a hotel if they needed to, but so far Shisui has been the only one not to contribute towards their housing situation even though it was obvious that he tried.

Shisui didn’t answer, but instead turned his face away and leaned in closer to her, still holding her wrists.

“I’m sorry,” Sakura said after a while of silence between them. Not even the critters of the forest stirred. “I’m sorry for what I said and how I hurt you. I didn’t mean to sound so heartless.”

A soft whisper of a laugh slipped past his lips. “Aren’t I the heartless one?”

Sakura turned her wrists over to hold him below his hands. “Okay, I’m really sorry. I get it, you’re not what I said you were. I was being a little elitist when I said you couldn’t love the same way. I was just not ready to honestly hear or respond to your confession, I’m still not.”

“You don’t have to respond to it, but don’t say I don’t feel anything when it’s all I can do these days!”

He raised his face and stared into her. They were close and holding onto each other. There would be no running away. Sakura felt the gravity of the setting and started to pull away, but he tugged on her wrists and she found herself locked in place. His expression settled and seemed to say, ‘ _listen to me, I am resolved_.’

“Shisui.” Sakura’s voice was a hesitant whisper that was caught and forgotten in the space between them. The world around them was silent.

“I’m completely useless and do nothing but feel all day and all night long. All I do is feel and it’s like being sick. I don’t think I’ll ever be the same way again and I knew this would happen if I went back for you after our first meeting. I knew I wouldn’t be able to turn back if I went back to the manor, but you told me your name and it was worse than a curse. I couldn’t help it. You caught me.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Sakura whispered, swallowing something heavy in her throat.

He laughed and it was the first time he didn’t sound like crying. “I know you didn’t. You weren’t trying at all which was exceedingly frustrating from my perspective. If I had a choice in who I fell in love with I would have went for someone who seemed a little bit more interested in me. I’m humbled by your indifference to my position in your life.”

“That’s not true. I-it’s not like I don’t care about you at all. You risked a lot to come with me and trust you now. You fought beside me, bleed and nearly died when the horned women showed up. I knew after that night you would be someone I could trust my back to. I’m not indifferent.”

Shisui almost smiled and there was something glittering about the way his eyes stayed stuck on her. “You don’t have to love me. It’s enough that I can say these feelings I have for you. A-and it’s not what I had planned, but I did end up spiriting away with you like I wanted.”

“You wanted this?” Sakura snorted, nodding at the trees around them.

Shisui shrugged. “The plan had been to make off with you to my lands and castle and spoil you rotten with dances and parties each night. I’d dress you in new silks every morning and satin in the evenings. I’d wrap you in pearls and highlight you in diamonds. I would toast to you each night and there would never be an end to your celebration.” His voice peaked and then stilled on a breath as his eyes blinked and his momentum seemed to dissipate. He blinked again and looked around, falling back into an easier smile. “But this is nice as well. I’m with you.”

“We’re on the run from multiple courts and highly trained fay trackers.”

His smile looked melted on his face. Anyone else would have been goofy with such a grin, but Shisui was too pretty and too fay to look goofy.

“Yeah, but I’m with you. It doesn’t even matter if the brat is tagging along or if we’re in a cabin with another stranger in the middle of a woods. This may not be NewDestruction or the Uchiha Court, but I’m learning I didn’t need all the things I once dreamed about having.”

Sakura bit her lip and pulled her hands back. He let her go, skin soft as she slipped out of his hold.

“I’m still my own person and I can’t answer your feelings. “ She dipped her head in thanks, refusing to meet his eyes. There were too many stars in his eyes. “I trust you and I even treasure you, but I can’t be anything exclusive to you.”

“…I know. I’m here with you and my feelings have been understood. That’s enough for me.”

He turned away and scooted back, smiling easily as he leaned back on the rock. There was a strip of sky where the starts were pulsing in brightness so far away from the city. For a while no one spoke and then because she couldn’t go back to sleep now, Sakura leaned back on the rock next to Shisui and looked up at the stars.

“Each fay court has a different version of the same story for that star,” she said pointing to Polaris, the North Star.

“What was the version they told in the Fox Court?” Shisui asked.

“What was the version they told in the Uchiha Court?” Sakura countered.

He grinned and the night was full of their stories.


	6. Chapter 6

It was three days after their night on the rock that it happened.

A breach.

Sakura was far from the house with a basket full of mason jars. One was open in her hands half filled with wild moss when she tasted the bitter tang of rotting apples in the back of her mouth. It was different from the magic she had grown to trust and understand. The Leshy never triggered such a reaction anymore, and the reactions from the goblins in the cave creeks and dark places was not so potent.

Sakura dropped the lid back onto her mason jar and started to spin it closed when a physical ripple made her shiver. The long parts of her flannel shirt flapped like wild bird wings around her as more wind pressed the crass around her down and unsettled the debris of he forest floor. If her hair hadn’t been braided so tightly back she knew that would have been a mess all around her face.

She was alone. Konan was somewhere else in the forest on some ‘guardian’ business she couldn’t take Sakura on. Sai saw to the barriers and followed up correspondence with a witch in Boston that might be able to take them in once they left. Shisui was on the fay highways looking for more information about where Itachi and the other Uchiha were now. None of their hunters had come close enough to cause him to worry.

She tossed the mason jar into the basket, careful to not break it with the underhanded toss. There was magic all throughout the forest and Konan had told her more than once it was a place on the earth’s surface that drew magic to it like a dip or drain. Every so often something new would show up and stick around or move on. They had been pretty good about chasing away the unwanted visitors.

‘Do you want to play with this enemy or run away?’ the voice in her head taunted.

Sakura could feel her own power close, nearly at her fingertips. She could think and the mask would be in place and her body would be made new. All it would take would be a thought. But if there was no danger and she transformed for nothing she would have to burn off some of her fay powers or risk recoil.

Something rolled in Sakura’s gut and she set her jaw before reaching for the magic and drowning in it. She didn’t ignore her gut.

The honey light filled her and she felt the breakdown pass over her in an instant before the mask appeared on her face along with the soft white dress of the seelie’s White Rabbit Champion. There was lace across her palms and the soles of her feet, but her toes and fingers were free and tingling with the rising tension.

There was the sound of paper ripping and then a clap that shook the forest around her. Sakura took off running knowing with every fiber of her being that there was danger in the woods. Her nature was to run. Run away. To flee.

Sakura caught herself between two trunks, hands gripping the bark to help stop her momentum. She stood still between the two trees and then turned to look back over her shoulder. Where was Sai or Shisui or Konan? Did she know they were safe?

She ran, turning sharply to correct her course and head in the direction of the sounds. She redoubled her efforts as she passed the clearing with the abandoned mason jars. There was just as much noise as before, but this time all her senses were tingling with new awareness. She could smell the smoke and feel the energy on her skin.

The trees began to fall away, becoming less and less dense the further she ran. The earth became rockier and steeper. A leftover mountain Konan had once joked.But were leftover mountains carved and inscribed with druidic runes?

Sakura caught Konan’s scent in the air and panicked a bit. She reached for one of her icons, not knowing which one until she was leaping from the trees and swinging it down on the burning alp.

The red haired monster shrieked and sprinted backwards on oddly jointed legs, too fast for Sakura’s Mistletoe sword to catch. The alp shook in anger, yellow eyes bulging. Sakura noted several other details, like the discoloration around her shoulders, elbows, and knees. Aside from a few other minor traits, the Alp looked human like, not like what Sakura would expect of a monster from the vampire family.

“What’s an alp even doing here?”

Sakura hissed out loud, frustrated with her inability to remember anything more about the creature beyond it’s rarity. The only reason she could even identify it was because Mito had captured a brood of them some 100 years ago and kept them as part of the trails for white rabbit canidates-

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

Sakura taunted, turning her mistletoe sword over in her hand, loosening her limbs for what was to come next. Alps were fast and they were nimble. Dealing with one meant you had to be fast and think ahead. They weren’t the toughest to put down, being pretty exposed in their nudity, but they weren’t the easiest to nail down either.

At least she wasn’t an enhanced Alp. Mito had dabbled in the science of monsters more than she was given credit for, and a few adult alp were alive to show off the mad queen’s work. Those alp had not been a part of the game, but Sakura had seen them used once.

“Sakura,” Konan called from where she crouched. There were things in her hands, mason jars, a roll of cloth, some baked goods.

“No, I think this is my fault, this one came for me, or at least was set loose on the world because of me. I’m sorry Konan, this is my fault.” Sakura held her sword up, sidestepping as the alp started to sway.

“Don’t think so highly of yourself. It came for my forest. I heard it coming but just thought it was something the Leshy could handle.”

Sakura almost paused when she felt something sad ache in her heart. She spared her eyes to glance sideways and see the scattered remains of what could have been a tree. Branches and leaves were slashed apart and left scattered on the ground alongside chunks of splintered wood and bark. It could have been a accident in nature, but on the ground in broken pieces was the skull of a bird and a handful of dead bees.

The alp began to scream, charging a powerful cry that bent wind and propulsion to her will, but Sakura slashed faster, leading her sword with honey colored light. The air hissed when her arch of light landed on the alp and defused her cry. Angry, she scattered backwards and fell on all fours before vaulting high and then sideways.

The alp came in close and Sakura brought her blade up just in time to defend against a swipe to the face.The alp’s claws were red tipped and curved with enough edge to make a panther jealous. She snarled over Sakura’s sword and bit the air between them before Sakura could throw her off and pivot away. The Alp was strong.

“I got this, just go!” Sakura screamed, feeling her blood pump with new anger.

Konan wasn’t fay, she wasn’t a changeling either. She had nothing to defend her other than the love of the forest, and that love was in pieces around Sakura’s feet.

Behind the fighting circle, Konan shouted something out but it was lost in the building scream of the alp. Sakura charged, determined to swing before the alp could scream out and shatter wood and air with her scream. Close enough to see the veins of white in the monster’s yellow eyes, Sakura was close enough to swing when the scream ripped through the air and sent Sakura sailing head over ankles into a nearby tree. Sakura felt her ribs shudder and crack in places.

Something in her broke from the impact because when she stood and coughed there was blood on her lips. Red blood. Human blood. In a new body with new magic there was still human in her that bled so easily. As a changeling there was the honey colored, magic rich blood that hid deep under everything, and then there was the weeping red from her human body. It would take a few more hits before she bleed anything but red.

‘You think you can take a few more hits?’

Sakura glanced off to the side and saw that Konan was gone. She would be safe once in the forest again. A different Leshy would spirit her to safety and-

There was no room for thought or feeling in her as Sakura rolled and sprang out of her crouch to draw her sword anew in a flourish that almost caught the alp. Sakura pushed her advantage, afraid to fall into the defensive again. The alp met her blows and slashed out on her own, not willing to back down on an enemy shorter and smaller than her.

Sakura wanted to scream when she missed with a strike once more. Alp were fast and nimble, two things that Sakura should have been the best at. What was faster than the rabbit champion or more nimble? Still, the alp refused to be hit and attacked aggressively.

‘You knew it when you fought the horned woman, but do you see it now. You’re no fighter, and what you learned back in the trails wasn’t enough to make you worth fearing. You know what you need to do.’

Sakura caught the alp on her sword again and charged it with magic, making it glow gold and burn the alp at her claws. Sakura screamed and used the momentum to drive her advantage, swinging wildly with less focus and more force.

‘You need to run.’

The alp caught Sakura across the chest and sent her flying. Sakura landed hard, snapping one of the ears off her rabbit mask and nearly cracking her neck. She shuddered in the dirt, feeling more of her insides become as a mess as the gold magic stretched thin. She would heal from this much if she stayed in her rabbit form, but there was a limit to how much trauma even her fay body could take and she wasn’t winning this fight.

‘You were meant to run and make men desperate, nothing more, and nothing noble.’

Sakura screamed in frustration, driving her sword into the ground and pulling it out again as her yarrow wand. The alp advanced but Sakura was already weaving white clouds of icy mist and curling fog into the world between them to hid inside. Sakura flooded the world in fog and choked out the skies with it before scurrying into it with her heightened senses.

The alp screamed loud and hard, blowing a shockwave through the fog that broke it up for mere seconds before it closed back in. Frustrated, the red haired monster screamed again and again, searching for Sakura or a way out. Sakura spun more fog and bid her time, skirting just out of reach. She watched and waited, waving her yarrow wand back into a sword that came out glowing.

The alp heaved a final scream and in the moment she breaks to inhale, Sakura was there, dropping down from a high branch with her sword like a spear, sinking it deep into the monster’s chest.

The monster was caught in a gasp that she never finished. Her yellow eyes strained in their sockets, colored white in stressed veins. The alp choked once and then fell down with Sakura atop her chest, sword and all. The sword moved in the alp’s chest cavity before sliding back towards Sakura and breaking down into mistletoe greens and speckled berries of white and red.

Sakura shivered, feeling caught between sick and high. She had killed again, and this was nothing like the attack with the horned women. Sakura knew those women were immortal and incapable of staying dead-only bound. This alp was different and it was a sudden, unwelcome reminder of days long since passed.

Bad day.

Sakura stood shaking and climbed off the alp. The fog was starting to dissipate and in minutes it would be gone without more magic to keep it together. Sakura was thankful for the mess of white around her as it only took a few steps to move far away that the alp’s body was no longer visible. Still, Sakura kept walking. 

She brushed past a maple tree with no low branches and plenty of texture to it’s bark. Sakura leaned against it and reached for her sense of self, feeling caught in a rush of emotion and adrenaline. Her chest still stung from where the alp swiped her and where she landed. Looking down Sakura saw that her white dress was cut and red where her skin had been slashed. The cuts were healing and she didn’t doubt her insides were minding as well, but the pain was still there.

Sakura felt her nose twitch and then her skin go fuzzy, the way it does during a lightning storm. There was a new taste in the back of her through, coating the inside of her mouth in something that was close to rotting apples, while still being completely new.

Sakura straightened and held her hand above her chest, ready to draw her mistletoe blade again if there were more monsters out there in the fog.

“That’s not a monster,” she breathed aloud, knowing it was true from the taste in her mouth. There were no more alp, but there was something in the fog.

As the fog thinned she could see two-no three- figures spread out evenly around the alp’s body. Two had their back to her but Sakura could see that the third one was staring straight at her. It’s stare was like a pin through her heart, tacking her on a cork board like a butterfly. She was caught.

‘Should have run.’

Sakura felt fear, the kind that pinned her and made her think of herself as more stone than girl. Whatever was staring at her from across the fog was ancient and vast in the body of a humanoid shape.

‘Should have run, should have run, should have run, should have run, should have-should have-should have-’

The figure staring at her was tall with spinning gray eyes that seemed as if they could see the whole world turned inside out. Sakura was trapped in those eyes and at the mercy of his good will. It was a he at least, that she could tell. 

He raised a hand after what seemed like forever and the fog came rushing back around him and the other two forms in a whirling wind. Sakura felt scratches on her face from the trees and debris, but it was nothing too deep.

And then as soon as it had started it was over. Sakura slid down the bark of the tree, eyes wide and searching for the figures or the body of the dead alp but saw nothing.

She had been left alone.

Her head felt heavy as she slid further down the bark front of the tree, suddenly tired.

'Ah, they left me on my own, but they didn't leave me alone,' she mused to herself as she drifted from the land of the waking.  

* * *

 

Someone had dropped something into her mind like a pebble into water. It slipped beneath her thoughts and settled behind her eyes. In a heartbeat it when from fog and shadows to color and definition. In and out, in came in a tapestry of flashes.

Sakura saw a girl being led into the fay world on a whim, baited with curiosity. There were many girls hooked this way, all young, all beautiful. The world of the fay was not so horrible to them as they grew up outside the courts. They turned into soft young ladies, still fresh in their girlhood and dreaming of the day they would see the court of the High Queen, a woman with unmatched beauty even among the fay.

Konan was a girl who didn’t know how to be unkind. She was gravity and people all around her were falling in love with her kindness and open heart. But this kindness wasn’t what made a girl more likely to be chosen for the journey into the courts.

The first girl to be invited was one of the older girls, and arguably the prettiest one there with striking eyes too blue to be true and enough flattering angles in her face to make any girl envy. She left in a smile and never came back. ‘Because it’s too good there, she doesn’t remember us anymore,’ they used to say.

One by one the girls were chosen, all beautiful in their own way until it was Konan’s turn. They dressed her in glittering gowns, painted her face, pinned flowers all through her hair as thin as paper and smelling like spring. She was an angel, they said.

The first few days were all she dreamed them of. She was loved, she was adored, she was obsessed over and made to feel like a priceless treasure. Never had she felt so wonderful. There was no time to even think or remember the other girls she had once upon a time worried about.

The the High Queen sent her invitation. It came in the clutches of a white winged dove, printed in gold ink on pearl colored paper.

‘A privet audience, how astonishing! What an honor!’ they all exclaimed, green with envy.

Konan wore her white feather gown, the one they called her an angel for, and dressed her hair with paper thin flowers of the same color. She was soft and kind and loved. The Rain Court adored her.

She was summoned to the palace and escorted through the gardens, the gilded halls, and polished rooms. All of it was almost too magnificent to see. It hurt her eyes. She was still human. The fay would was too much to truly appreciate with human eyes and a human mind.

‘This way child, and those pesky limitations will be no more.’

Of course. They loved her. They would take care of her. They adored her, after all.

Konan followed her escort into a hall of glass and gold, where at the end sat the queen of legends on her throne, looking into a mirror on the wall. Her hair was tied up and a gold choker sat high on her neck, clasped gently in the back with gold pins and a chain. Her dress flowed on forever in waves of water blue.

She hadn’t seen Konan yet and pushed the mirror floating in midair away to wave down an attendant who carried a tall black box lined in gold. Nineteen other identical attendants stood at attention around the room.

The attendant unclasped the box and folded it open sideways, so the mannequin head on the pedestal was exposed and made easy to remove. The queen then unclasped the gold collar around her neck and pulled her head away from her body, detaching it like a lego piece. She set it on the stand next to her throne and reached for the new head in the box. She turned it around, snapping and locking it into place on her shoulders before tying it up with the gold choker that sat high on her neck. She tied herself up and opened her brand new eyes.

Before, her face and been tanned with darker features, but now her eye were as light as a cloudless sky and her hair was long and feathered in pale yellow curls. She looked just like one of the girls Konan used to know; exactly like one of the girls.

‘This one will do for today,’ the high queen spoke, using a voice Konan had heard one too many times before, when her friend complained about having to wait her turn for a chance to dance in the court’s city.

The High Queen of the Rain Court looked up and smiled wide when she saw Konan. ‘What a beautiful face you have, my dear.’

And just like that the thoughts that came like an invader, left like a thief.

Sakura woke up, head groggy and wounds partly healed. It was late in the day and she needed to get back.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've actually forgot to upload the rest of this. Life just got in the way and it was one of the projects that got less feedback so it sorta slipped my mind in the mad rush of things? Haha, sorry about that. I still have plenty story left to share and look forward to getting back to the weekly updates for a few more weeks. I know this chapter is short-or on the short side, but the others will do better. 
> 
> More and more of Sakura's world is being explored and remembered. There are many other fay courts to get into trouble with and Sakura isn't the only girl to have her share of drama. There will be others and there will be more for her to discover. 
> 
> Please help a starving artist out with a review? Thanks. I love it when I know I'm doing something right.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we look into Sakura's Present and see who is looking for her and who are working to track her down. Also, Shisui's future!

That night when she came back to the house she saw she wasn’t the only one needing stitches. Shisui had run into a monster that sounded like another alp, but had tried to run away. Sai had been close and the two of them had managed to deal with the creature without great injury. Shisui had been caught off guard in the beginning and took a trio of deep gashes across his chest for it, but he was healing so much faster than her.

“They weren’t tracking you, if that’s what you were worried about,” Konan explained to them as she opened up the first aid kit for Sakura. “They were drawn here the way all other things are drawn here.”

“That still doesn’t change the fact that they came from my court or that they were probably set loose in the hopes of them finding us and ending our lives,” Sakura said.

“You think they wanted to kill you?” Sai asked, frowning from where he sat on the couch and watched Konan clean the cut on human Sakura’s arm. The ones across her chest had already been wrapped in privet.

“Yeah, maybe, I don’t know. I-I didn’t exactly leave on good terms with the court, remember? And I broke a law. Some of them are going to want my head for that.”

“But do you think the high queen wanted to kill you with this?” Shisui asked, voice soft as he watched the same thing Sai watched. He ran an absent thumb over his own scars, frowning.

Sakura thought of Mito and the way she seemed to delight in games and challenges and trials and science. She had never been a fay obsessed with slaughter, but she loved challenges. The trials were a game to her.

Sakura closed her eyes and spoke while imagining the red haired High Queen of the entire fox court watching through the eyes of a monster she once enslaved. “She might not want me dead, but this was meant for me. She wants to see if I can prove to be entertaining.”

“Either way, we already decided that this means you’ve probably been found out. They’ll know we’re here. We have to move,” said Sai.

“You don’t have to,” Konan bit in. “You’re better off staying here where the forest will protect you. We were a bit off today, but usually this place is impossible to penetrate if you’re unwelcome.”Kona paused before moving to tape up the last of Sakura’s cuts. “You don’t have to leave.”

“I thought you didn’t want us to overstay our welcome with you,” Sai said, glancing up at Sakura and then back over at Konan, starting to understand. Sai was still learning what it meant to like something or someone.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Sai.” Konan stood and started packing up the first aid kit. “I’m going to get extra food from the shed for tonight’s dinner.”

“Thank you for patching me up, Konan.” Sakura called out as Konan began to walk away. The older woman paused, glanced back and then nodded before leaving the room altogether.

Sai moved to sit opposite of Sakura on the couch while Shisui moved to sit on the arm of the recliner Sakura sat on. Shisui reached for Sakura’s hair, which was mostly loose and wild as it fell over her shoulders, longer than she remembered it. Between his fingers it was impossibly soft.

“What do you think we should do?” Shisui asked.

Sai looked to Sakura, waiting for an answer.

“Those alp were not worth getting worried about, but there were others, ones that Mito experimented on that I have no confidence in defeating. We don’t know what else will come into these woods if Mito knows we’re here.” She paused, and then corrected herself. “If Mito knows _I’m_ here.”

“We don’t know she is aware of your presence here, though,” said Sai. 

“Mito is not someone to underestimate. She has spells, spies, magic I couldn’t even understand. She knows I’m here. I’m almost sure of it. There were things she did when she would watch the world through the eyes of fox and bugs and things she got her hands into. If those alp came from her court, Mito likely was able to see whatever they saw through her means of magic sight.”

Sakura remembered the veins of stressed white that ran through the alp’s wide, yellow eyes. The veins were normal, but white was a sign of magic. It was a sick realization that made her gut roll.

“There’s no way that alp didn’t get a good look at me.”

“So you want to leave?” Shisui prompted.

“I don’t want to,” Sakura sighed. “But I think that maybe that’s the best decision we could make. Konan doesn’t deserve to be dragged into this. The alps were just the beginning. There will be stronger monsters, different fiends, and even hunters. I’m not suited to the fighting that will come our way if we stay here.”

Sakura remembered the broken bird skull mask in the middle of the mess of leaves and tree. She remembered the dead bees and the way the body of a creature so powerful could so easily be torn apart when it protected something precious.

“Then…where would we go? If we go north from here and seek out Boston there is a witch of sorts we could stay with, but I’m not confident in her discretion with Danzo.”

Sakura waved her hand in front of Sai and shook her head. “Then we don’t risk it. We can stay at a motel again and recuperate there while we try to find a way to get Ino and the others free. If we don’t have any other allies then there’s no point in running so far away.”

Sai nodded, glancing down at the ink brush he kept across his lap. In a moment it could be a wand if he so wished it. “It is regrettable that the Fox Court could not be an ally in this.”

“Don’t say something so demeaning,” Shisui hissed, crouching over Sakura.

She reached up and held Shisui’s shoulder, easing him back. “No, it’s okay. Sai’s right. But, even if I were well loved by that court, Mito doesn’t like involving her own people in anything. She loves to see people struggle and suffer, but it’s different when it’s her own people. I think it was one of the reasons she was so willing to create a changeling for the position of White Rabbit.”

“Still,” Shisui glared across the room at Sai. “That doesn’t matter to us now. She’s our enemy, she’s someone we want to avoid. I say we make another run for it, find somewhere to lay low and utilize what resources we have to break out the men and women Danzo trapped. The sooner the better. Danzo is making land grabs in the Uchiha court left and right.”

Sai flinched in such a small way Sakura almost thought she imagianed, but there were no big flinches or big expressions when it came to Sai.

“How do you know this?” Sai asked before Sakura could say anything.

Sakura turned to Shisui and under the new attention the Uchiha fay pulled himself up a little straighter. “I go back along the hidden ways on the fay roads along the lay lines. There’s a strong vein of lay that runs through this forest I utilize for my escapades.”

“And Danzo’s advance on High King Madara…?” Sai leaves his words to trail off in question.

“Still advancing, but with little success. It is a siege, and sieges are not something that scared the immortal. Madara is content to wait years if that is what it takes. Danzo prolongs his life with elixirs, but he is human. Death will come for him in due time.”

Sakura thought back to the way gold and red stained her dresses after a fight. One hurt to shed, the other was something she was disappointed to see wasted. She still had her human fear, but fear is a thing fay learn so poorly in their never ending life. They come into the world fearing nothing. It always startles them to discover how humans fear before they even know what fear is. Humans are born afraid of falling and loud sounds, fay are not. The fay do not fear death.

“By taking the Uchiha capitol and conquering their court, does Danzo believe he will have what he needs to kill one of the four sleepers?” Sakura asked, glancing between Sai who knew Danzo best, and Shisui who knew the Uchiha best.

The two boys exchanged a look before Sai spoke first. “That is his belief, yes. He knew with a degree of certainty that a path to the sleeper was hidden close to where the high king reigns. Those were his exact words.”

Shisui snorted. “He’s way off base, but I won’t tell him that. He can storm Madara’s walls and the two plagues can kill each other off.” 

“You don’t think highly of your high king?” Sakura asked.

Shisui grinned in response. “Were you very fond of your high queen?” When she blanched he chuckled and caught a tendril of her hair to hold between his fingers and stroke. “I didn’t think so. That’s why I lived on my lands so far removed from the capitol and the business. NewDestruction was a capital on the edges of our reach. It was as far away as I could get without truly leaving.”

“No one will blame you for such tastes,” Sakura said.

Sai looked up and blinked, the way an owl would when watching prey, and then opened his mouth. “I think the other Uchiha actually might take offense at the slight. Victors from fay games and champions of the Rabbit Races are expected to fulfill certain social obligations when they win. Ibis once mentioned that the high king destroyed an entire armory when his Compassion Game Champion refused to marry one of his daughters.”

Sakura felt herself fixate like a fly to honey on Sai’s words and nearly stood up. “The Uchiha play Compassion Games? Since when? Those are supposed to be banned between humans and fay since the old world.”

Compassion Games were just as bad, if not worse, than Rabbit Games, and the only thing Sakura could think of with more horror to it was the Yew Trials she survived for her victory icons.

The fay loved their games and sports, but in Sakura’s opinion the Compassion Game was more brutal slaughter than sport.

It started with a desperate human, a man, woman or child who cried out and swore they would give anything for the thing they wanted. They would give anything for a cure to their son’s sickness, they would give anything for their job back, the love of their childhood friend, the death of a tyrant, the freedom of a nation, the revenge of a family wronged…the list of victims was endless.

Fay sought these desperate figures out and brought up their offer of compassion. ‘I’ll make your mother as good as new, not a trace of the blight left in her, but first you must play a game for me.’ It’s the reason it’s called the Compassions Game. Humans caught can’t help but accept, it doesn’t even matter that most of them knew, deep in the back of their hearts and minds, that they are being tricked and used.

Fay make good on their promises, they honor their words, butthe games they ask the humans to play in return are slaughter shows that rarely end well for the humans. ‘Bring back three hairs from the head of the creature that hides in this well. Take this cake to the woman who lives in the yurt at the head of this river. Wear these shoes to the hall under the mountain and bring me back what you find in their little golden box.’

Compassion games were banned hundreds of years ago between humans and fay after a near uprising in the old world. So many humans, no match to fay, threatened to lay down as many of their lives as they saw fit to put an end to their hunting and slaughter. Seven High Kings swore an end to the games. Nothing was as binding to the fay.

Sakura shook the memories from her mind and looked up at Sai. “What do you mean when you said that?”

“It was many years ago, and I do not know the details.”

Sakura looked up at Shisui with wide eyes and the hand that held her hair trembled, but his smile betrayed nothing. “Do not fear, it’s true, the games were banned between fay and humans, but there were no such bans passed down for future high kings to play the game with their own fay.”

Sakura made a sound that was strangled in her throat, but Shisui heard it all the same and it made him smile. 

“Yes, even fay can be desperate too, though it is rare.”

“There was no need for such a ban. Fay can complete compassion quests with greater success than any human.” Sai interjected, ruffling up at the assumption that Shisui was to be pitied as much as any human caught in such an ordeal. “They are not so helpless.” 

“Not so deserving, either,” Sakura whispered, staring sadly at Sai.

One of the worst things about the Compassion Games was that it prayed on the people who fell the lowest they could go. It was inhuman to go after those who couldn’t possibly refuse.

Sakura slapped her knees with her palms and then looked up. “Either way, we’ve come to a decision on what we should do next. Tomorrow morning we will head back out, in the direction of Boston.We’ll get our own place, but Sai, you’re in charge of brokering this meeting. We need a way to get in to free the people Danzo captured, but I’m not taking chances.”

Sakura reached up and flicked at Shisui’s hand in her hair. Shisui let her hair fall through his fingers as he held up his hands in mock defense.

“You want to tell Konan this? She’ll take it best from you. I don’t think she likes either of us very much.”

Sakura said she would, and minutes later when Konan came back in with potatoes and fresh vegetables for dinner Sakura went straight into the kitchen to wash and prepare their meal alongside their host. It was halfway through when Sakura let Konan know of their decision.

The older woman didn’t contest it, but asked only once if that was really what they wanted.

“We think it’s the best we can do with this situation…for all of us,” Sakura answered.

“I won’t talk you out of it then. But before you go there is one more thing I can do for you and I think it’s something you’ll appreciate,” Konan said as she washed the side of her knife in warm water before taking it to a new batch of vegetables to cube. “You impressed one of the three fates today when you fought the alp.”

Sakura blinked and then froze, knife raised mid chop. _The figure staring at her was tall with spinning gray eyes that seemed as if they could see the whole world turned inside out_. Just the memory was enough to freeze her on the spot. 

“A what?” she breathed out in a whisper of what was left of her voice.

“One of the three fates. A long time ago they were like gods, worshiped and prayed to like pagan deities of the harvest, of the rain, of the earth and health. But the immigrants grew up and their children abandoned the old ways. What’s a god in a world of unbelievers? So they gravitated to this place and reside under the memory of the mountain. It’s where I was this morning with my offerings. The runes in the rock are their names. There are no stronger forces in this forest than those three fates.” 

Fates were crones and spiritual women who could see what was not to be seen. Oracles who ascended to something more were considered fates. Fates were never so overwhelming, and often docile in the flesh. Also, while not a rule, they were often women in the stories.

“Fates you say?” Sakura echoed in a tone of clear disbelief. “What are they really? I don’t think I saw a crone in the fog today.”

Konan looked up from her peppers and grinned out of the corner of her mouth. It was a grin of understanding. “That’s how they _ask_ to be known. They do not use their true might in the world of man anymore, and I suspect it’s partly because there is no one left to believe in them or pray to them. They have their pride, you know.”

“But they have you. That’s what the jars were for. You said you were bringing them offerings, so doesn’t that make you one of their followers?”

“Less a follower and more a believer who know how to keep her neck safe in a magical world without magic.”

Konan moved her knife to the side and pulled the put of water off the back burner and onto the closest one that actually still lit. There was broth inside and with new vegetables, it would be hearty and thick. Perfect for people still recovering from wounds and bruises.

Sakura added her vegetables and Konan flavored it with the usual suspects; salt and pepper. Only later did she add any special seasonings. Soon it was boiling with rich flavor and richer scents. It drew Sai and Shisui to the table where silver wear and dishes waited to be assembled in all the right settings.

Konan warned them that they would be walking out once dusk fell, and that they should dress warmly. She didn’t say anything more about anything else after that, but ate her soup in silence, content to listen to Sakura chastise Sai on his inappropriate habit of nicknaming characters like in his books. He asked her what a better way to build comradiry with someone was and it turned into something of a discussion between the both of them one what was beneficial to a relationship and what was superficial. Sakura cut it short with the promise that she would answer whatever he asked in the morning, but first they needed to clean up and get ready to head out.

The world was November cold, but in the middle of the forests where magic was so close it seemed to stay warmer longer. The exception to this was at night when the world became alive in a whole new way.

Each of them donned a jacket and followed Konan as she took her earlier offerings from the porch bench and lead them out into the woods she knew so well.

Sakura recognized the path they took and mentally calculated how much longer it would take them on foot to reach the site where she fought with the alp this morning. It would be another ten minutes of steady walking if they kept the same pace. That gave her plenty of time to think.

Sai brushed up alongside her and Shisui noticed the contact right away, but it was Sakura who turned to him and raised an eyebrow in silent question.

“You used to call the blond one Pig as a nickname, I remember now.”

“I think I did that once in front of you, and that was only because she called me-“

“Forehead,” Sai interjected, proud to know the answer.

Sakura rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it was a nickname. I had a bad haircut experience with bangs and kids thought I had a huge forehead. It was a joke, they teased me, Ino turned it into something a little less hurtful.”

“You were friends with her a long time?” Konan asked, glancing back over her shoulder.

“Yeah,” Sakura hummed. “I mean, I was an adult when I left the Fox Court, but when I came back it was to the body of an eight year old, just like those kids stepping back through the wardrobe. I had to relive childhood all over again while dealing with all the emotions left over from what I went through. When I was like, ten I found her and she decided I was going to be more than just the girl she found in the lunchroom. We were friends ever since.”

“Did you know she had cancer then?” Sai asked.

Konan staggered but kept walking, recovering so quickly Sakura missed it even though Shisui didn’t.

“No, that didn’t come up at all in front of us. But even if I did know, it wouldn’t have changed how things happened. It wouldn’t have changed how we felt. We were friends. I liked spending time with her and felt comfortable with her.” When Sai opened his mouth to ask another question Sakura plowed on. “Yes, even with our weird nicknames.”

“They are wildly inaccurate and do not make any logical sense,” Sai said.

She shrugged. “Sometimes nicknames don’t make sense. Sometimes they are the opposite of traits a person posses. Though, I think it was pretty accurate when I got dubbed billboard brown in fourth grade.”

Sai was silent for a moment before finally speaking up. “Sakura, I would like to give you a nickname.”

“Sure, go for it,” Sakura casually commented, stuffing her hands into the deep pockets of her coat and marching on. They were close now. Sakura recognized marks just beyond the clearing. In another minute or two they would be in sight of the runes on the side of the almost mountain.

“Ugly.”

Sakura staggered and caught herself even as Shisui reached for her elbow and Konan stopped to bark out a laugh. A second later Sakura joined in and together the two girls struggled to keep going, as their sides started to hurt from all the laughter.

Shisui huffed in annoyance. “I find the nickname inappropriate.”

Sai’s stare over Sakura’s shoulder was impressively daunting. “I did not consult your opinion, Uchiha. If I had, maybe you would have gotten a nickname of your own.”

Shisui glared back. “I would hate to have one of your nicknames.”

Not one to back down, Sai inclined his chin and stared down the length of his nose at Shisui. “How fortunate for you that the only person I cared to come up with one for happens to not be you.”

“I have one for you; brat.”

“That’s an insult,” Sai quipped.

“Nah, I think it describes you pretty well.” Shisui took another long step to draw up even with Sakura, who walked close to Konan. Sai was not one to be left behind, though, and quickly did the same.

Soon the trees fell away and they were standing among the grasses where Sakura had taken the beating earlier. There was no sign of the alp body, but Sakura did see the stone with the runes etched deep into it. It looked like a grassy mound grown over a slab of stone.

Konan faltered at the sight but then set her shoulders and continued onwards. There was an absence in the earth under the markings, not unlike the mouth to a cave. It was hard to see and impossible to detect unless you were looking for it. There was a thin shell of magic over it that made Sakura’s eyes want to fall off and look away. It took a strong sense of will and a stronger resolve to force her feet through the magic vail behind Konan.

Shisui had no problem, but Sai faltered as well, until Sakura grabbed his wrist and tugged him forward. She pulled him close to her side and together they stepped down into the place they had to struggle through. Konan walked like someone invited and Shisui walked like someone entitled.

Down they traveled, down under the mountain, making Sakura’s chest swell and constrict all at once. She felt dizzy and grabbed for Sai’s hand more for her own steadying than his. Sai didn’t seem to mind.

The ground turned polished and melted from stone to reflective gray marble. The hall opened up into a chamber where three thrones were carved into the rocks with geodes and quarts thick up the sides. Vents like cuts in the floor eased up small clouds of gas, smelling like fire and hysteria. Over the largest cut in the floor was a low table where Konan crouched, laying out her offerings. Flowers, fruit, honey, and woven goods she had handmade many months prior.

‘I do this every other month, or every three if I can get away with it,’ she had explained earlier to Sakura. Sakura hadn’t asked what it looked like tonot ’get away with it’ even though she was curious.

Konan took a rod of something that smelled like incense and fit it into the cut in the floor. She dropped it and waited. Minutes later the smell bloomed up with the smoke through the slit in the floor. 

“Now we wait,” Konan said, glancing back at Sakura who hung on to Sai and Shisui who glared at the shorter boy. 

Sakura swallowed and nodded, knowing better than to feel so nervous. But so far underground and between so much stone it was nearly impossible for her not to feel choked. Nothing good happens under the mountains.

The figures came minutes later, after the smell was thick and heavy in the room. Behind their thrones were slits in the walls leading somewhere unseen. There were three of them, all dressed in different variations of the same pale, cotton tunic.

The fist figure had dark red hair that was nearly black in the dull light. It feel limply in a mess over one eye. The other eye looked out in languid scans, fixating on Konan more than anything. He was thin with bones showing through his skin. If the cloth didn’t cover his chest, Sakura was willing to bet she would see a full set of ribs poking through. His hands were so thin.

The second figure stepped out in better health, short copper hair pushed away from his face to set off his dancing blue eyes and easy smile. His tunic was barely there, with the bulk of it collected to drape around his legs from the band at his waist. His arms were covered in gold braces, but he seemed fairly comfortable in his state of near undress. Like the first male, his gaze stuck to Konan and the grin grew.

The last figure emerged with a bit more reservationHe wore his robe with one fold draped across his chest and over his shoulder, leaving one half of his front exposed. He walked with the elegance of statesmen as he folded his hands over his wrists and rested them in front. His hair was of the same color as the second man’s but with more body and vibrancy in it’s shade. His eyes were also different, gray and ringed like the ripples in a disturbed water body. Black paint shadowed his eyes and the lower part of his chin, trailing down the underside of his jaw and the dip of his neck.

“Konan,” the man in the middle breathed, sounding like he was taking a breath for the first time in his life. His eyes danced as he looked on at Konan and her group. His smile was impossible to miss. “I’m so glad you’re safe. We came as soon as we could but by then it had already been taken care of.” His eyes switched to Sakura. “You?”

She had been wearing a mask and her whole body had been different earlier. It wasn’t impossible to not see the similarities. “That-yeah.” Sakura nodded, still not trusting her voice in the stone chamber. She glanced sideways at the last figure, the one that unnerved her the most. He was the one that pointed to her after the fight, she knew it.

The first, sickly man interjected, folding his hands and inclining his head. “We are thankful for your aid, stranger. You are no enemy of these lands. I am Nagato, the eye of fates past.”

The second, bright male touched a hand to his chest and stood up taller. “I am Yahiko, the eye of fates present.”

Sakura nodded, looking to the last figure who stood in still silence. Yahiko sidestepped towards the silent man and pointed. “This is Pein, the eye of fates yet to come. He doesn’t talk much, but he’s thankful too.”

Sakura nodded back to the man named Pein, almost grateful he hadn’t spoken. “It wasn’t a thing you need to thank me for. Konan is my friend, she’s been so kind to us.”

“Her kindness is a godsend. She is precious to all of us and this forest especially. Konan is our angel,” Yahiko sighed in agreement. Nagato’s eyes softened on Konan, not minding his brother.

“I have come with your offerings, but I am here to beseech your favor,” Konan stated, taking on a formal tone that was so unlike her usual speech. “These companions depart in the morning and would benefit from your guidance.”

Yahiko seemed enamored with her, and if the blush on her cheeks was anything to go by, Konan likely had a soft spot for the male fate. The same could be said based on how Nagato looked at her. Pein was an odd one and Sakura wasn’t confident in her ability to read him at all. Still, she kept herself proper in their presence for whatever reason.

“We are in a debt to the girl,” Nagato said, looking from Konan to Sakura. “Ask us for this boon.”

Konan nudged Sakura and she was forced to leave Sai’s arm to step forward. She remembered the importance of ceremony with ancient things and made her back ram rod straight. “I ask for your boon.”

All three moved in slight ways, observing her now and only her. Then Nagato looked away first to stare at her companions. “And them?”

“They are my companions, part of my unit,” Sakura answered, head held a little higher. She wasn’t alone in this. She had Sai and Shisui behind her.

“We owe you a debt and we will see it payed with this boon,” Yahiko said, raising a hand and collecting smoke into it. “I am the Eye of the Fate of those who are Present. I will see the present fate for one of you three.”

Nageto pushed his hair back and looked out with both, silver ringed eyes. “I am the Eye of the Fate of those who are Past. I will see the past fate for one of you three.”

Pein stepped forward, looking down at Sakura. “I am Pein,” he said in a voice heard for the first time by Sakura and the other two boys. It was ancient and far off, rolling in her ears like thunder. “I am the Eye of the Fates of those who are not yet. I too will honor this boon. I will see the potential fate of one of your two companions.”

“Potential?” Sai echoed from over her shoulder. It was what Sakura wanted to say, but her voice was still in her throat and she still felt pinned by this figure. He as too much.

It was Shisui who explained for Sai. “A fate who can see the future perfectly every time doesn’t exist, seers who see the future, creatures and monsters who see what has not yet happened, they only see the most likely possibilities. They see _potential_ futures.”

“It’s better that way,” Konan whispered back over her shoulder at the two boys. 

Sakura shook her head and fought for her voice back. “You said you would see the fate of one of my two companions. Does that not include me?”

Pein hummed low in a way Sakura could only assume meant yes.

“Why?”

“Your future is unseen, as it is with all creatures caught between the fates of two worlds. You are neither here nor there, a being with allegiance to both the fay and human realms.” His voice was law, rolling like something ancient in the cave around them. Sakura didn’t doubt a word he spoke, even though something felt unsettled within her.

‘ _I cut my ties_.’

‘ _Easy to say when you’re not wearing the mask_ ,’ the voice inside her head cackled, making Sakura flush.

Changelings were any human or fay who were raised in a world opposite of their nature. Humans raised in the fay world and fay raised in the human world were both considered changelings.But Sakura was a true changeling, the kind that changed her very nature. Once upon a time, the word was invented for the reformed creatures of the world. The beings who had witches and fay queens dig their hands through and change the makeup and structure of their bodies; that’s who Sakura was.

“Sakura.” She looked up when she heard Yahiko call her voice. “Your future is not written, and perhaps that is a blessing more than a burden. The present is what requires your most focused attention right now.”

Nagato nodded and then looked from Shisui to Sai. Sai flinched and looked down, drawing up what he could of his emotionless mask of facial expressions. He wore it like a clown when Nagato moved a step closer.

“You have ghosts in your mind from a past you have not moved on from,” Nagato drawled, eyes fluttering in thought as he took one more step in Sai’s direction and stopped.“Cut Danzo free and commit yourself as you claim you have to this woman. You are not as undivided as you believe yourself to be and she does not deserve such a broken follower.”

Sakura reached for Sai before she knew he would shiver or flinch. She made sure he felt her hand around his wrist, her fingers on his veins. He calmed under her touch before he could show just how riled up he was, but he didn’t look up at her. Instead, he bowed his head and stared at the ground.

“I’m not divided. I said I would follow Sakura, I chose this path and I never regretted it,” he said, keeping his head down and turned away from Sakura. He glared up through his lashes at the sickly fate.

“I know,” Sakura whispered, hoping to be encouraging.

The skin around Sai’s eyes tightened and he looked over at Sakura with tightness making his mouth stretch taunt in a look she thought might have been disgust. He looked away as quickly as he could, struggling to mask his emotions once more and find that inner peace that came with being numb.

Sakura stepped closer to him.

“I don’t blame you. It’s okay to be a little divided. I don’t expect you to be perfect. Be a little broken, be a little messy, that’s fine.”

Her words were whispered but she suspected those was extra sensitive hearing like Shisui and even the three fates could hear what she said. Still, she didn’t care. Sai heard her and that’s all there was to it. 

“You don’t have to do this if you feel-“

“I’ll do it.”

He looked up and his face was clear again, but not completely devoid of emotion. The stress was gone and his hard edges were softer. He nodded to the first of the three fates and stepped forward, holding onto Sakura’s hand for as long as he could before he moved too far away to hold on. When their hold broke his hand hung back at his side in a tight fist he opened to flex and then clench again.

Sai angled his chin up at the sickly fate and took strength from his stance. “Show us my past.”

Nagato looked up sharply at Sakura who stood behind Sai and then down at Sai. He didn’t contest it though and instead drew himself up and pushed back the red bangs that hid his other spinning eye. With both on Sakura, the lines that encircled his eyes began to ripple out, out, out, beyond the lids, out, out, out, beyond the limits of his face, out, out, out, until the lines were all around them, erasing the rest of the room. Sakura felt drawn in and felt Shisui stand closer to her, hands out to steady her should she fall. The world around them bled like a drowned watercolor painting and then dimmed considerably.

 

Sai was young, too young to know more than a handful of words as he was having trouble standing up. Sakura felt her heart sink when she saw Sai as a toddler being passed on from one starving mother to a too kind fay for a basket of food. No, the food just hid what was tucked in at the bottom of the basket. Meth and needles.

Sai was a toddler when he left his world. It explained in part his abnormal development. He had been raised by monsters. Where was the love he needed to develop and grow?

‘Your ancestor was a wizard somewhere in history. You might be worth the trouble of raising. If not, there are always the games for you.’

The speaker was an Uchiha who was dressed in long black robes neatly pressed and clasped at the breast in gold. The pin on his chest was of a running rabbit jumping through a wreath.

“Kagami,” Sakura heard Sai echo.

In the memory Sakura spun, looking for her Sai and not seeing him where she left him. She had been fixated on the appearance of his younger self she had not noticed where he slipped off to. She turned around Shisui and saw him standing on the edge of the vision, looking at his younger self and the older Uchiha with a blank look.

Shisui tugged on Sakura’s arm. “That’s Kagami Uchiha, he mentored me when I was chosen as the Black Rabbit. He was the previous Black Rabbit champion in the last races.”

“What does he want with Sai? It’s nearly unheard of for humans to be rabbits, I was supposed to be the abnormally.” 

“He’s a wizard though, you need to understand that such creatures are too tempting to pass up for my kind. We’ve been enslaved, summoned, and used by wizards for centuries. That is the way of things just because they have souls separate from their magic. Sai was too juicy to pass up.”

Sakura understood what went unsaid. ‘For revenge.’

Kagami walked away from the younger Sai and another Uchiha, the one that struck a deal with the mother, took over the rearing of the child. Sakura saw a toddler turn into a child and then a youth. He was taught how to read in more than one language, basic math, and little else. The rest of his day was spent on labor and chores. It brought the fay abductor delight to see the son of a wizard scrubbing his floors.

Sakura watched her Sai, searching for emotion or reaction, but Sai was unmoved by the sight before him. This did not upset him and it broke Sakura’s heart to see how numb he had become. This wasn’t what broke him.

Sakura feels a heavy vibration and she’s unsteady on her feet as the visions around her shift once more. She hears her Sai react to what he sees coming into focus. Once she seems the image clearly she wants to be sick too.

Sai is maybe twelve, he’s on the cusp of puberty, still too childlike in his face to be too old. They have him in a chair, Uchiha she doesn’t recognize. One holds a silver bowl with black slithering inside blacker water. Sai is bound by iron chains he struggles against. The iron doesn’t burn, but neither does it yield.

The Uchiha with the black water draws closer and proceeds to tip to bowl into Sai’s mouth as the boy is held back by two other fay. Sai thrashes and tries to scream, but it’s choking his throat and coming out of his nose from how he heaves in his seat. They all draw back the moment the deed is done and Sai begins to scream.

“They didn’t numb him for it,” Shisui breathed behind her.

“Numb him for what? Wha are they doing to him?” Sakura croaked, finding her throat tight.

Something black slithered out of one nostril and into the other as Sai gagged, crying in his chains. _‘Help me, help me, stop it, stop!_ ’ The rest of his words were choked out, too garbled to understand.

Black water ran from his eyes like tears, or maybe they were tears. It was coming out of his ears too, and if he wasn’t choking Sakura would have assumed it would come from that orifice too.

“They’re cleaning him out.”

Sakura blinked, remembering Shisui beside her.

“What?”

Young Sai struggled in the memory while present day Sai looked on, eyes narrowed and strained.

“They’re making him a husk of a person for the use of possession. This sect practiced the druidic magic, banned in our courts, not for the sake of our own goodness, but for it’s end purpose.” When Sakura said nothing Shisui went on. “They meant to inhabit him-to give up their fay selves and become a human. It’s forbidden because it’s deplorable to consider lowering one’s self. I can’t imagine how this could have happened in our courts.”

“It didn’t.”

Sakura and Shisui both looked to Sai who had turned his attention to something at the edge of the vision. He was frowning and trying to see something better.

“They took you away,” said Shisui, watching he same new ripples as the image melted into one of chaos. A younger looking man Sakura recognized as Ibis-one of Danzo’s spies- tore into the room and killed the entranced fay. A new Uchiha ran in followed by Kagami.

The last two fay kidnappers tried to run but were decapitated in an instant by Kagami and the newer Uchiha. _As fast as a rabbit_. Sakura heard Kagami curse loudly and turned back to the boy in the chair, blood on his hands. He looked so helpless before reaching for Sai’s face and holding it until the black thing leaked out through Sai’s mouth and onto his lap. 

‘This is not what you promised,’ Ibis said in the memory. ‘Danzo wanted a viable agent.’

Kagami glared sideways at Ibis, still holding onto the small Sai’s face with his bloody hands. ‘He’s alive, he’ll be viable damn it. If he was so worried about his own damn son he could have come here himself.’

Son.

Sakura turned to Sai and stared with new eyes. Danzo was old and wrinkled as a rag, but the same cold, almost fay shaped eyes, the dark Uchiha like hair, the ears were the same too. She could see parts of Danzo in Sai, even if they had different chins and got their noses from different genes. Sai was Danzo’s child and he betrayed Danzo to go with her.

Danzo let Sai go. Danzo endangered his son…more than once.

More words from Ibis made her pause her thoughts and look up.

’He’s no good if he can’t speak. He’s already at a disadvantage for being removed from the courts. We can’t use him as a sleeper agent. How long with the rehabilitation therapy take?’

‘I will take on the rehabilitation. I will keep him a ward of my house outside the courts until he is well enough to leave,’ said Kagami.

‘He’ll age if taken outside the courts.’

‘Which is what he needs to do in order to be well again. Go back to your black magician and tell him his bastard son is in my hands until he cares to retrieve him.’

Ibis walked around the mess of bodies on the floor and toed one of the decapitated heads with the tip of his shoe, watching it roll away, snag, and stop. ‘You’ll be busy with your own brat. The games are coming up soon. Has a rabbit been chosen for you?’

There was a long silence between all the characters in Sai’s memory and those looking on. Sakura felt the presence of both Sai and Shisui close by. She could reach out and they would both be close enough to grab and bring close.

Kagami dropped his hands from Sai’s face and shook them so the loose blood fell off his fingers. He glared up over his shoulder at Ibis.

’The compassion games will decide that. My mentoring of whoever survives will not get in the way of Sai’s rehabilitation.’

Ibis nodded, wiping the toe of his shoe on the chest of one of the killed fay. ‘If you say so, but you’ll have two very broken boys to deal with. Don’t think that’s nothing to worry about. Danzo will be in touch, but only once you have a solider ready for him to use. We have no need for broken tools.’

Sakura let her knees give out and Shisui caught her by the elbow, but lowered her to the floor and knelt down alongside her while the scene melted out of focus and began to reshape something new.

Sakura could barely pay attention to all the times and memories of Sai and Danzo, when he came close to feeling loved, when Danzo almost showed affection, when Sai was praised, when a job was done well…there were so many opportunities for Sai’s heart to break and Sakura felt her’s break for each example.

Sai became that perfect tool, emotionless and unfeeling. Whatever he did feel was hidden behind a mask, the way Ibis taught him. There were no others like Sai, but that didn’t matter, because as long as Danzo was there to give orders, he wasn’t alone.

The image ended and Sakura felt weak for it. She sat on the floor, palms braced against the stone beneath her to help steady what was left of her upright body. Shisui still knelt alongside her, but didn’t touch or hold onto her anymore. He watched her cry without offering up any words.

“Why?”

Sai stands over her, looking down.

When Sakura looks up what she sees is distorted by the tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sai. He was your father. That shouldn’t have ever happened to you. He-I’m sorry, so sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She felt her heart stutter as she struggled for breath as another sob hit. It hurt all over. She could feel Sai’s suffering and it tasted so much like her own. “I’m so sorry.”

Sai’s voice is just as composed as it’s ever been when he speaks to her. “There is nothing your tears can fix. Why do you cry?”

_A small boy bound in iron chains that don’t burn, yet do not yield either_

“Because _you_ didn’t.”

Sai grabbed for her elbows to lift her up, but when she felt his hands she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to squeeze in a bone crushing hug. He fought it at first, but Sakura wasn’t about to give him up and held fast until his protests melted and he eased into her.

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

Recap:

Sai stands over her, looking down.

When Sakura looks up what she sees is distorted by the tears in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, Sai. He was your father. That shouldn’t have ever happened to you. He-I’m sorry, so sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She felt her heart stutter as she struggled for breath as another sob hit. It hurt all over. She could feel Sai’s suffering and it tasted so much like her own. “I’m so sorry.”

Sai’s voice is just as composed as it’s ever been when he speaks to her. “There is nothing your tears can fix. Why do you cry?”

_A small boy bound in iron chains that don’t burn, yet do not yield either_

“Because _you_ didn’t.”

Sai grabbed for her elbows to lift her up, but when she felt his hands she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to squeeze in a bone crushing hug. He fought it at first, but Sakura wasn’t about to give him up and held fast until his protests melted and he eased into her.

* * *

 

She whispered into his shoulder how she was sorry and never minded the other figures watching her break down. She was too much of a mess to see anything more and Yahiko, the one who saw the present, could tell.

“Come again in one day’s time to see the present of the girl,” Yahiko spoke up, addressing Konan on the wall. “It seems you are at your limit for today but will be well for you tomorrow at dusk if you need to call again.”

“No!” Sakura exclaimed, looking up with red rimmed eyes and an agitated nose she rubbed the back of her hand across. “No, I’m fine. I’m sorry, I’m good to go. Don’t quit because of me.” 

“Sakura,” Shisui started to say, but she grabbed his shoulder and pulled herself up.

“It’s not a big deal,” She whispered, using the back of her hand to rub her nose one more time. It was almost runny and she knew well and good how little the ‘perfect’ races hated such a sight. “I’m fine.”

“The decision is yours, we will not make it for you,” Konan said from where she leaned against the wall.

Yahiko flushed and straightened up, nodding in agreement. Nagato was back to soft, secret smiles, watching Yahiko fluster around the girl the forest loved. The two of them seemed quite animated in comparison to the third fate, Pein, who watched on as silently as a stone from the other end of the room.

“Then I will explain what will happen. I am different from my brothers and share what I see in my own way.”

Yahiko offered his hand for Sakura to take and she immediately felt bad for how dirty she was going to seem in comparison. Sakura rubbed her hand down the side of her jeans and then hesitantly offered it to Yahiko.

He took it without flinching and she felt a sharp stab under her fingers and bit her cheek to keep from yelping. Blood welled from her fingertips and beaded at the edge before sliding into Yahiko’s palm. Sakura let her red blood flow into his palm, not minding how the place where she had been pricked throbbed. 

A single bead of gold blood pooled up alongside her red blood and Sakura raised an eyebrow at how naturally it snaked into the growing red pool in his hand. She had never seen her gold blood outside of when she was hurt in her transformed stage.

There was a sharp sound, like metal being torn and her blood jumped apart, out of her hand to hang in the air in several points around her head. Sakura turned, looking at each of the small points of blood before they widened and rand down the air as if it were a glass surface. The trails it left became red glittering frames pooling with liquid glass. A moment later the liquid glass solidified and became a set of mirrors hanging in midair on nothing but magic.

“These are the windows to the present and near present for those connected to and affected by you.”Yahiko waved to one before adding an explanation. “Watch whichever ones you choose. See them all, or see none.”

Sakura turned and looked around here. There were blurry images in each of the six frames, but a seventh frame was built out of her gold blood, and it glittered with a black image Sakura knew she wouldn’t be able to make out unless she looked deep into the glass.

“Mito is on the other side of that glass,” Sakura breathed in realization as the sensation unique to the High Queen of the Fox Court made her spine shiver. She knew that feeling too well to forget it now.

“What are the others of?” Shisui asked, coming up behind her. “Are there any of Danzo or Itachi?”

Sai stepped up alongside her a bit more hesitantly, looking around for the glass that would show him his father. There were several that were coming into focus.

‘ _Which one is Danzo_?’ Sakura mentally mused, searching for a tug or pull towards the mirror that would show her what she wanted to see. Maybe there was a mirror that would show her where Ino and the others were.

“There,” Sai breathed, pointing to one of the mirrors.

The image bloomed into clarity, spreading out and growing. Sakura saw Danzo, draped in black, cloak billow as he hiked the fur collar higher. It was cold in the Crow Court, something that rarely happened in a fay court with an affinity for fire like the Uchiha. The siege was not going well for Madara Uchiha.

“He’s making life hard for Madara. No such cold will harm a fay, but we hate to be uncomfortable, so it’s all the same,” Shisui explained nodding to Danzo and the two men at his side.

Sakura recognized one of the two men as the spy known as Ibis. The other was unnamed in Sakura’s memory. Lips were moving and Sakura strained forward to hear what they were saying and speaking about. Danzo seemed upset.

“He’s refusing to move from the manor until his demands are seen to,” the unnamed spy said to Danzo, sounding apologetic.

“We need him here. The sooner we take the court the sooner I can lend him the men he needs for his little rabbit hunt. Right now our focus should be here, at Madara’s doorstep.”

Beside her Sakura felt Shisui stiffen.

Ibis leaned in close to Danzo. “We’re close. We can make it without that Uchiha’s help.”

Danzo snorted. “You’ve no lack of pride to speak so foolishly. That Uchiha is the reason we’ve gotten this far. There is no other Uchiha more decorated or more skilled than Itachi Uchiha. If we hope to push past this wall and take Madara’s court, we need Itachi for that. Would you like to be the one who binds a High King into stone in his own court? You will do well if you carry your pride so close, Ibis. We need Itachi.”

“He sent me away with just that message, sir. He said he didn’t want to be disturbed again unless it was with favorable news,” the third member of the party spoke up.

“Then he shall receive favorable news. Tell him I’m making the arrangements to send out a tracking unit. I’ll have the hounds out as soon as he returns. That should rouse him from his bed.”

Danzo shifted his shoulders and lifted up the end of his walking cane before stamping it down on the ground twice. The base sparked with red and blue magic that twisted with a wanting to be used. Moments later the red magic thread crawled outwards, twisted up with more of the blue magic wire.Together they spun around each other until a shape took form and bloomed at Danzo’s feet. A wolfhound, followed by two others, stood at attention with their bodies made out of crackling blue and red thread magic. They stood limp at their master’s side, panting slightly. There was no purpose for their invented being. As soon as they had purpose there would be a reason for them to stand up straight.

Ibis made a sound of dissatisfaction. “You shouldn’t tax yourself so. Save your magic.”

“I’m making an investment.”

Ibis reached down and offered up the first wolfhound his hand. “Indeed, but even with Itachi on our side, there is much we must do to make our dreams realized.”

Danzo chuckled. “One day soon, in my lifetime, I will see a world safe from guaranteed doom-deserving such a gift is a conversation we will have some other time.” He turned to the other man and nodded. “Go, Squall, tell Itachi what I’ve said and see that he comes at once. We have a court to take over.”

Squall nodded and took off, hoping with grace and agility through the rubble. The glass reflection bubbled and Sakura found herself blinking hard as the mirror melted into dead blood that dropped to the floor at last.

‘One down, six more to go.’

“Ino, and the others,” Sakura said out loud, looking into several before one made her look longer. The green bodies came into focus and she breathed a sigh of relief to see they were all still in one pice. The ivy seemed thicker than before, with more tendrils reaching out, but other than that they were all safe.

Shisui pat her shoulder in reassurance as this mirror melted as well and splashed to the floor in a modest stain of old, red blood. Two down.

“What next?” she asked, staring into another mirror and seeing forest.

There were trees not unlike the ones she saw in the forest that loved Konan. In the glass there was a small animal stalking through the grass of the forest before coming up upon a body. Sakura felt her lip curl at the sight of the slain monster. It had been an alp, once upon a time, but now it was just mostly ribbons. Just beyond it a black fox, larger than most dogs, sat licking his paws clean of blood. The fox looked up, eyes bright blue, and pounced on the unsuspecting snake to tear it to pieces.

The mirror shattered and fell apart at her feet.

“That was Menma,” she breathed. “He’s from the Fox Court and was a hunter in the last games.”

“Fun,” Shisui chuckled, tensing only slightly. It was his nature to run from such creatures.

“It didn’t show us where he was.” Sai toed the bloodstains. “We don’t know how close or far he could be from here.”

“He was hunting an alp so I’m gonna guess that he’s not too far. It’s a tactic, right? Release fodder to sniff out the game in a hunt? The Fox Court kept Alp locked up, you said.”

Sakura looked from Shisui to the broken mirror bits and sighed. “Then it’s good we’re leaving now. I couldn’t fight him even if I had to, and I’m not ready to meet him or his brother yet.”

“This one?”

Sakura looked up to where Sai was pointing and saw in one of the other mirrors a scene not unlike the one she just witnessed.This fox was golden with light colored fur; it copper in the direct light, and ashy in the shade. The fox trotted over a patch of blood before shifting mid stride into a man, nude and older than Sakura last remembered. Naruto’s hair was longer, falling over his shoulders as he picked up some garments from the forest floor and rejoined his brother. Menma didn’t shift back, but the two seemed able to communicate just as well in their opposite forms.

“You just ate, leave the snake alone. You look like a mutt.”

The black fox snarled something back at Naruto who was stepping into his pants. Naruto struggled and huffed loudly from where he stood.

“We have the same human form. Your hair’s the only difference. Don’t insult me and sound stupid.” Naruto buttoned his fitted hunting trousers and smiled cunningly over at his twin. “Someone’s going to hate you when they see you.”

Menma’s ears dropped and he barked a quick yip before trotting away from the ripped apart snake. He dashed in front of Naruto and started to sniff at the ground. A while later he picked his head and trotted further.

Naruto flinched as if reacting to something said. “How am I supposed to know that! You remember just as much as me. You’re always calling me the stupid one so I thought you should be the one to know what happened.”

Menma yipped.

“You can ask her that once you pick up another Alp’s scent and find her. Don’t look at me, get to work.”

The mirror cracked, straining and beginning to crack. Sakura could hear it stress as it was pulled apart from the inside.

In the mirror, Naruto paused, hands loose at his sides, and looked up at the sky above him, marked with stars. His eyes were bluer than the sky and far too wide to be fay. His expression was only partly revealed, but Sakura could tell it was troubled at least on some level. She didn’t doubt Naruto was stressed out, considering how helpless he was when it came to tracking. That had always been Menma’s strength. Naruto was the one with ungodly endurance and prowess.

Menma yipped again.

Naruto snorted, looking back down at his brother. When he grinned his pointed canines flashed. “ Stupid question. If someone’s done something to her we just kill them, obviously.”

The mirror shattered and that was the end of it.

After Danzo, Menma, and Naruto, Sakura expected the fifth mirror to show her someone she knew, but all she saw was a girl in a black polished mask, speckled with pearls, kneeling near naked atop a pedestal in scraps of a cotton shift. She looked frozen in time, and as the mirror panned out, Sakura saw about a dozen other figures in masks, all frozen the same way.

“Why am I seeing this?” Sakura asked out loud.

“Maybe one of the people in a mask is thinking of you?” It was the first time since the mirrors formed that Yahiko offered his advice. “Sometimes the people you are connected to aren’t even people you know yet. You’re a rabbit champion, to some you are important. Of course there are going to be those who think of you that you have never met.”

Sakura shook her head. “No, I think I know her. I feel…if only she wasn’t wearing a mask. I couldn’t even make out her hair in the dark light.”

‘What a friend.’

Dread dropped in her chest. “Oh, Karin? Is that Karin?!” She surged closer to the mirror, grabbing its sides. “Karin?”

The mirror quivered under her touch and started to burn. Sakura dropped her hands at once and whimpered at the red welts it would leave. Shisui held her hands then and pulled them close to him, blowing across the burns while Sakura still leaned in close to the mirror, trying to see anything more.

It was Karin, she was sure of it, mask or no mask. There was no way to prove it, but Sakura could imagine the red hair in the darkness looking black. It was Karin. 

“What is she doing there, where is this place?”

The mirror whined loud and then melted on a hiss, splashing into blood at her feet.

“Shhh,” Shisui whispered into the side of her hair, lips close and brushing kisses. “Don’t fret, I’ve got you.”

“That’s Karin. She was my friend during the games, but she’s a fay. They-I don’t understand what happened to her. She was supposed to be fine when I left. She was one of the high fay. It looked like she was-“ She didn’t say the rest, but she thought it.

- _Under the mountain_.

“Those masks look like the type the Milk Court uses,” Konan said, glancing sideways at Pein before back at Sakura. “The Milk Court is a sister Court to the Rain Court, and I’ve seen those masks before. They are an unseelie court and their counter opposite is the Honey Court, a seelie court.”

“I’ve not heard of them before,” Sakura confessed meekly. “But my knowledge of the courts is limited.” 

Konan nodded. “Yeah, I only knew about a few myself. They’re like countries unto themselves. If my court didn’t interact with them, I didn’t know they existed.”

Sai narrowed his eyes, likely wanting to ask about the court she called her own, but Sakura put a hand on his wrist to stop him. Sakura knew enough to know Konan didn’t like talking about where she came from.

“Another thing to worry about later. What about the last two mirrors. One of them might show us something we need,” Shisui cut in.

There were two mirrors, but Sakura didn’t want to think about the gold one. Looking at Mito again…

Sakura turned to the next blood red mirror and looked in. Shisui stiffened beside her the moment the image came into focus. It was Itachi, laying face down on her old bed. His eyes were closed and arms curled up under the pillow he breathed into. Sakura saw the small rise and fall in his back and knew he was breathing, but couldn’t tell if he was actually sleeping or just resting his eyes.

“He’s not working for Danzo anymore,” said Sakura. “He’s just resting.”

Shisui huffed behind her, shifting the weight of his body from one leg to the other. “I don’t think there’s anything more to see. Danzo’s mirror already told us what he’s doing. He’s refusing to work until he gets what he wants.”

Sakura watched the mirror a little longer before deciding to agree with Shisui. Itachi didn’t seem like a threat. There were other things, more pressing things, she should worry about.

She turned away from his mirror and it warbled in place before shattering into blood on the floor.

There was one more blood mirror in addition to the gold mirror from before, meaning Sakura hadn’t noticed this mirror when she first grew them from her blood. She expected to see something familiar, but once the image cleared the picture was of a moving figure. It was a woman, blond and blue eyed. She was fay, that much was clear to see after just a quick glance. Her hair was braided into twin tails that trailed down her back, flapping slightly as she ran between the trees. She paused between two and then crouched down low. She touched the earth and moved sideways to better see the tracks in a new light. She looked up and took off again.

The mirror shattered.

“What was that?” Sai asked.

Sakura shrugged and looked to Shisui who also shook his head. The trio looked to Yahiko who smiled kindly at them. “It is not always ones you know who show themselves to you in the mirror, but there is a connection.”

“There’s one left, Sakura.” Konan pointed to the last gold mirror before adding, “But you don’t have to look into it if you don’t want to.”

“Why would we not want to do that?” Sai asked, already walking towards it.

Sakura forced a smile and held her elbows before following Sai over. Shisui stayed close to her back. The mirror’s image started to bubble and Sakura shut her eyes fast before it could clear.

There was an ocean roaring in her ears, it was really the ocean and not all the blood rushing to her head, there was an ocean, an ocean, she was safe by the ocean, no blood, there was an ocena-ohgod what did she do?

She opened her eyes when she heard Shisui’s inhale and immediately wished she hadn’t. Sakura covered her mouth to help herself not throw up. Her stomach still lurched and from behind her she heard Konan take a step back and let Yahiko hold her shoulders.

Mito stood nude in the middle of a work room, drenched in blood like a gown. Her expression was fiery with anger as she wiped the blood from her hair. It looked like it had splattered all over her face. There were flecks of flesh peppered throughout the blood stains.

“Another one wasted.”

Mito crossed over to a different side of the room and Sakura saw a new table with a new, sleeping body stretched out. In the background there were seven other tables with bodies and four with bloody messes. All the bodies were different. Some were fay and others were human.

Mito didn’t even bother to wash herself or dress herself. She plunged her hands in deep and the body began to glow with light from inside. The light bleed from the nexus of Mito’s hands and started to seep into all the other corners of the body, down the arm, up the neck, to the legs…

“Yes, Foxchild you shall be. Be remade in this glorious image my pet,” Mito cooed in sweet glee.

Sakura felt weak even before what happened next.

The body bloated with yellow light and then exploded.

Mito screamed and stomped like a spoiled child before grabbing the table and throwing it across the room and kicking the broken remains. In the far corners were brownies, tiny creatures that looked like humans who helped out the fay.

“My lady,” one began. “Perhaps you could turn them into something less daunting. Hunters are your elites, are they not? Maybe something more humble, like a rabbit.”

Mito was offered a towel from the male brownie and she snatched it in anger before wiping her face. “Rabbits are just as complicated, they only require less magic to fill them, less still if they have victory icons. These specimen were all inadequate. I need stronger bodies.”

“Taking a fay with victory icons is…it will be difficult. There have not been icons issued in two generations outside of for a rabbit. We could find you stronger fay instead of these humans.”

“The fay are less malleable than humans, you speck!” Mito seethed, tossing the cloth aside and shaking her hands of blood. “No, Humans are what I need, strong humans, humans touched by magic.”

“A wizard-“

“Out of the question. Not even I can get my hands into those. No, I am done here. I will make corrections and retry on the remaining bodies at a later date. Nothing will come of them, but I don’t believe in waste. Send in someone to clean this mess up. I want an update from my guard on their hunt.”

The mirror shattered and Sakura fell to her knees with it. Shisui caught her and held her tight. He kissed the side of her head and rubbed his nose into her hair. “You’re fine, I’ve got you, you’re going to be okay. You were so brave. I’m proud of you. You’re fine, love. You’re safe, you’re safe here, I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

“That was your High Queen,” Konan breathed. “She’s insane.”

“She’s a little worse off than what she used to be,”Sakura tried to joke, smiling weakly.She looked up at Yahiko who was still holding Konan around the shoulders. “Is that it?”

“For you, for tonight, yes, that’s it.”

“Good,” Sakura breathed before forcing out another fake smile and laughing for Sai who was watching her keenly. “I don’t think I can take much more. Who knew this would be so emotionally exhausting. Right?”

“You feel too much,” said Sai in a small voice. “It hurts you, so why?”

He seemed so meek and it was hard to remember that he was really a wizard, a young capable man who could paint dragons and griffins into light. Right now, he looked and sounded too much like a scared child who never knew what it meant to have someone love you unconditionally. What good were feelings if you never had someone to share them with?

Sakura shrugged. “It’s what I do. Feeling can be good too. I’d rather feel this than nothing at all. But I’m fine, this is nothing like what it used to be.”

Shisui smiled and hummed approvingly. “You’re strong, I admire that so much in you. I’m just used to running away from things I don’t want to see.” He squeezed her shoulder before standing. “And speaking of things I don’t want to see….I think it’s my turn, Pein.”

The last of the three fates stepped forward, silent and solemn as ever until he opened his mouth. “My visions are only for your eyes. No one will share in them.”

“Alone am I? Fine, it’ll give me an excuse to steal away Sakura’s attention a little longer when we’re out of here. Fine, show me what you see, Pein.”

Sakura watched Shisui brace as Pein’s eyes glowed purple and then gray. They were spinning with wild, ancient magic from a time before time and a space beyond space. She felt the ground quake under her and tremble from the presence of Pein’s old power. Sakura felt it in her bones and nearly fainted when she heard the voices piece her mind.

 _The mighty will despair at the Fate of the heavens, the wheel that is spun can not be un-spun, so speaks the truth of the one who sees, the Great Eye of things yet to come! Tremble with the earth and bow with the mountain, the enemies of nature have no seat at the table of grace. He who sees has seen, will see, and is the eye of the unblinking truth. Above as is below, no corner of the earth has been touched that does not know the weaving of her fate. So speaks the truth of the one who sees, the Great Eye of things yet to come_!

Shisui cried out and staggered just as the voice in Sakura’s head finished. She looked up and saw him wavering on unsteady legs and rushed forward with Sai to catch him before he fell. Her own knees, which had given out only moments earlier, were somehow steady enough now that she had someone else to help and to hold.

“He’s out cold,” Sai observed.

“As he will be if he’s seen anyhting worth sharing,” Konan explained, leaving Yahiko’s side to stand in front of where Sakura held Shisui. Konan nodded at the limp fay. “Don’t worry, but you will have to haul him back. It’s not polite to tarry in these places. Their debt is paid.”

“As it is,” Pein echoed deeply, glancing at Sakura, the only one who’s future he couldn’t see, before turning and heading back into the shadows from where he came. Yahiko and Nagato lingered on the edges of their boundaries, both looking at Konan.

“Until next month,” Nagato said, melting into shadow.

“We will see you again, Konan,” added Yahiko with a mournful smile before he too was shadow in the dark.

Konan came up alongside Sakura and helped heave Shisui up and together they made their way out and back to the house before the dawn light could break. As Sakura tucked Shisui in for bed, she knew it would only be a few hours from now when the sun rose that she would have to set out with her friends on the next part of their journey.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recap for those of you who have waited so long for this chapter: Sakura is on the run with Sai and Shisui, they're looking for a way to free the people Danzo (an evil wizard who has fay Itachi working for him) captured while avoiding whatever he might have sent to chase them. Sai claims to have a contact they're heading towards after they leave Konan and the three fates from the woods. Each Fate gave the three of them a vision of their past (Sai) their present (Sakura) or their future (Shisui). The last chapter ended with them loading into a car and heading away.

 

 

Boston would take two days of travel if they took the back roads and actually stopped for food. The traffic was worse than Sakura had expected and what should have taken minutes for her to travel ended up taking hours. She had no idea when or where rush hour was worst and they ended up running into some bad luck right away.

“It’s okay, I like spending any time I can with you,” Shisui admitted after a particularly nasty jam came up.

Sai sat in the back but leaned forward between the driver and passenger’s seats to come between Shisui and Sakura.“Sakura, I think Shisui is annoying. Am I allowed to hurt him?”

“What-no? What are you talking about?” Sakura asked, sounding as exasperated as she felt. “Why are you asking me that?”

“He’s far too clingy. All he ever wants to do is touch you or be close to you or talk to you. I feel unsettled whenever he acts so selfishly.”

Shisui chuckled and lifted his brows to match his condescending grin. “Ah, Sai dear, that means you’re jealous. You’re not getting what you want so you feel bad. Is it so terrible to be so outclassed?”

“Sakura,” Sai began again. “I have never felt so moved to harm someone.”

“Please don’t, Sai. We’re in a tiny car and there’s not enough room for you to brawl your feelings out.” Sakura reached over and snapped her fingers in Shisui’s face. “And you, quit antagonizing him. If you’re not going to tell us anything more about what you saw in that vision you can keep your cake hole shut.”

“Or I could keep _your_ cake hole shut,” he muttered under his breath.

Sai started to raise his fist but Sakura caught him and gave Sai’s wrist a little shake. “Come on, he’s not worth it. Shisui’s just trying to get a rise out of you. He’s been like this since he woke up.”

“What are you saying?” Shisui whined. “Anyone could say I’m no more different than usual!”

Sakura glared at how easy it was for him to twist his words to lie without actually lying. He was still fay.

“No, you’re a lot more flirty and clingy than usual. You made up a song for the color of my hair. You braided all the napkins I used at the last diner we stopped at, and you haven’t let me out of your sight once since waking up.”

“That’s not true, you went to the bathroom.”

“But you were circling outside the door like a vulture,” Sai added. “Your behavior is repulsive.”

Shisui rolled his eyes.“What would you know, kid? You’re like 13 with the emotional range of a teaspoon.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sakura interrupted. “Sai’s right. You’ve been acting weird and it’s freaking me out, so spill or I make you spill. I’ve got iron knuckles in here somewhere.”

Shisui laughed at the sound was high and clear. “You’re such a love. There’s nothing-“

“Shisui,” Sakura growled. “I’ll hate you forever and never let you touch me or my hair again if you don’t cut it out this instance. It’s a long car ride to Boston, and I can’t put up with another day of this. You want me to hate you, then keep it up, because that’s how things are headed.”

There was a stilled silence in the car after that, filled with all the usual sounds of cars and engines and traffic coming in through the muffle of the thin windows but Sakura didn’t break it. Sai watched the space between the two of them, leaning closer to Sakura even though he knew that would upset Shisui even more.

The car crawled forward and inch, and then a foot, and then it stopped again. It would be minutes before they had to move again. Shisui wasn’t going anywhere and neither was Sakura.

“It’s not a big deal,” Shisui breathed quietly under his breath, leaning back in his seat. “I told you it was sort of a lot to explain.”

“We have time,” Sakura answered. To prove her point she eased off the gas and the car rolled maybe two inches before she had to brake to keep from hitting the car ahead of her. They were locked in and trapped for a while.

Shisui was quiet for a while after that, turning away and trying his best to ignore the other two in the car, muttering to himself and slouching against the window. Sakura let him and didn’t press him further. Sai had his books to read in the backseat and she had her road to watch and plenty of worries to take up room in her head.

She worried for Ino, a figure she hadn’t clearly seen in any of the mirrors, but she also worried for Karin. She didn’t know what had happened to the redhead after leaving the city, but the image in the mirror didn’t look pleasant. Sakura didn’t have a good feeling about any of it and that made her all the more upset with herself. It seemed like all she ever did was run away when her friends needed her.

Shisui’s voice made her own thoughts end short.

“They weren’t really images of the future, only possibilities.”

It was the first thing he had said on the topic in the last stale hour. Sakura hummed and kept her eyes on the road as her car crawled forward in less grid locked traffic.

“I saw several things that Pein said could possibly happen in the future depending on the choices I make.”

“One of them made you upset?” she guessed.

“Many of them made me upset.” He cursed under his breath, not meaning to admit that. He couldn’t lie though. The truth slipped out easily if he was distracted.

“Tell me what you remember.”

She didn’t ask what made his upset, or which vision he least preferred, but let him take the lead on how he wanted to go about confessing his hard truths. It wasn’t something he wanted to do, she could see that. It was a moment of stretched silence before he finally spoke again.

“There were several different flashes. In one vision I saw you wearing a fox mask instead of a rabbit mask, you were holding a mistletoe sword that was unlike the one you wield-it was the sword of a hunter, the rare kind that offensive fay wield. In another I am in the Uchiha Court and it is empty of life. All around me are dead feathers. It has been decimated and Danzo has killed all my family. In another Madara is dead and I inherit the title of High King, in another it is Itachi who inherits the title. I see in a different vision I am fighting Itachi head on but I’m actually thrashing him with a skill I do not possess. In one other vision I see myself rebuilding a battered city with joy alongside surviving Uchiha. In another I’m trapped in iron somewhere dark and cold, in another-“

His voice stalls, catching on something as his eyes go wide for the memory playing out in his mind.

“What do you see?” This time it is Sai who presses Shisui for answers while Sakura creeps forward in her lane behind the pickup ahead of her.

Shisui turns to look at Sakura. “You’re dead, surrounded by flowers on a table with your eyes wide open, staring up at the sky but not seeing any of it. I’m too late to save you…not that I think I could or that I was ever better than you at anything. But there was nothing I could do. I was helpless.”

Sakura exhales through her nostrils and switches on her blinker to merge into a faster moving lane. “Impossible. That’s not going to happen.”

“How do you know?”

“Pein said he couldn’t see my fate because of what I am. Even if he saw it through you, my future is unknowable. I exist outside of fate, a perversion of nature. Pein couldn’t accurately predict my future.”

She didn’t know if it was her calm or her words that eased Shisui, but the stiffness in his shoulders lessened.

“There were other fates I saw. You were happy and had a home of your own. You were making tea with lots of honey. And then there was one where I killed our sleeper and stole all his power-a thing I don’t even know how to do, not that I would ever want to!”

“You said it yourself, Pein only showed you possibilities. Maybe none of that comes true, maybe only the good, maybe only the bad. You don’t know and neither does he. None of those options are truth, the only truth I know is that you are here with me, we’re safe in this damn traffic, and I’m happy I’m traveling with you…even if you’re overwhelmingly annoying at times.”

Sakura completed the merge only for her new lane to still and become as congested as the lane she just left. With an aggravated huff of annoyance she punched the edge of her steering wheel and turned to look over at her fay companion.

All the hesitation and awkwardness was gone. His shallow flirting and avoiding tactics were forgotten. Shisui was nothing but serious.“I won’t let you die.”

Fay couldn't lie. 

“I know you won’t.”

* * *

They stayed on the road another good hour before Sakura gave up and took an off ramp off to head to the nearest motel and sleep in with the boys before heading out again in a few hours when the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad.

Like most of the cheep motels Sakura had stayed in, this one came with two full sized beds and the awkward implication that she would have to sleep alongside one of her companions since they refused to be so close with each other. She decided Sai was the lesser of two evils and let them know of her decision before going off to shower, turning the water as hot and high as she could in an effort to drown out Shisui’s complaining.

When she emerged, fully dressed for sleep, she found both of the full beds pushed together to make one large bed. Sai sulked on his side and Shisui grinned from where he perched.

“I’m too tired to deal with this, move over.”

Shisui obliged eagerly and Sai followed suit, grinning with the small victory of Sakura scooting over to his side of the mattresses. After a moment though Sakura thought better of it and scooted more towards the middle, remembering that Sai was a minor and she didn’t want anything to be misconstrued. It was bad enough she let him have champaign before the age of 21. She made a terrible adult, even after having aged twice over.

“Why are you moving away from me now?” Sai asked, not understanding her hesitation.

Sakura grumbled, fluffing her limp pillow and curling up under the thin blankets. “I don’t want to accidentally touch you and make it weird. Go to sleep.”

Sai nodded, following her example even as Shisui got up to make an excuse about showering and washing his pretty fay hair. The lights turned off and Sakura though that was the end of things but moments later she heard him shift in the dark. His hand found her’s under her pillow and touched it lightly.

Sakura jerked at the cold touch and hissed. “What?”

“I like touching you.” He said it so innocently Sakura wanted to smack herself.

“No-not like that. Just, you’re young and I didn’t want to make it uncomfortable for you.”

“Touching you does not make it uncomfortable for me. I want to touch you, Sakura.”

Sakura buried her head in the pillow, hating how gross that sounded. But it was Sai, no one ever hugged him as a kid, his dad never touched him with affection. In his whole life, had he ever had so much positive contact? Did he even have a concept of sexuality, much less a preference?

She peaked out from the pillow with one eye and lifted her face enough to speak without muffling her voice.“Sai, do you understand that I trust you and believe you would never hurt me?”

Sai went still on his side of the bed. His eyes were wide with question. “I would never do that. Why ask?”

Sakura still hated how difficult this was to talk about without it becoming weird for her. Sai’s innocence made it that much harder. “I know you’re not that aware of some things, but it’s kinda…when…in beds there are…undertones. Um, certain associations can be made about people who… _touch_ … in bed.”

“You mean sex.”

Sakura wanted to hide under a rock. “Y-yeah. I don’t want to misconstrue things between us, especially because you’re so young.”

“Is that why you’re not upset with Shisui’s proximity when you sleep?”

“If Shisui tried something I’d rip his hand off ‘cause he knows better than to try anything with me, plus he’s not a minor. I’m not sure you have the same awareness as him.”

“So, I’m special?”

“You’re a minor, so yeah. That’s a whole new set of rules there, kid. Plus, I know more about your background and your history, I know this isn’t something you have a lot of insight into. Still, it makes me uncomfortable.”

“Even if I were to tell you I had no sexual intentions, inclinations, or thoughts?”

Sakura sighed, dropping her face back into the pillow. “I’m sorry I’m making a big deal out of this. I just don’t want to leave this matter unsettled. Holding hands is fine. Just, hands though.”

Sai slowly reached back for her hand under the pillow and touched her wrist before wrapping his fingers around her palm and tugging it closer to his own pillow. “I think I understand. I won’t ask for more.” 

“Good. I’ll see you in the morning then.”

Sakura closed her eyes and let her body sag in relief, relaxing from the long drive and all her peacemaking between the two boys. A moment later her breathing evened out even though she hadn’t completely succumbed to sleep. She could still feel Sai holding her hand and hear Shisui coming out of the shower.

“She’s sleeping, don’t wake her,” Sai whispered to the new presence that made the bed sag behind her. She wasn’t, but she was too tired to move up and tell them that.

“What are you doing, holding on to her?” Shisui teased, toweling his hair dry and throwing the towel back into the bathroom.

It was a moment more before Sai answered, voice soft as a dove’s whisper. “You said there was a future where you saw yourself with Sakura and you were happy.”

“Hn, yeah, what of it?”

“I don’t like the thought of you being happy with Sakura. That would mean you taking her away to live in your fay court with you.”

“That’s sort of the dream, yeah,” Shisui grumbled.

“...I don’t want you to take her away from me.”

The bed squeaked as Shisui shifted more of his weight forward. “Oh? You think she’d think twice for a kid she can’t help but mother every chance she gets. She’s just pitying you. Besides, didn’t you just tell her you didn’t have any uncouth intentions?”

Sai ran a thumb over Sakura’s knuckles. “Who says I do? What’s so uncouth about this? I said I didn’t have _sexual_ intentions and I don’t.”

“Maybe not today, but there’s too many tomorrows for you to be sure about that. Maybe not sexual, but you do have intentions of an unknown nature with Sakura.” Shisui shifted again. “What are you going to say if I ask you what you really feel about her?”

Sai pulled her hand closer and leaned into his pillow. “I’m not a fay. I can lie all I want.”

Sakura didn’t hear anything more than that. 

* * *

Somehow she woke up with Shisui cupped up alongside her, one leg wedged between hers, his right arm snaked under her pillow, and his left arm curled around her waist. His face was in her hair and she could feel his breath on her neck. Sai still held onto her hand.

Sakura didn’t shake Sai off, but twisted just enough to kick Shisui off, hissing about his clinginess. He came apart on a whine and was quick to recover and come crawling back to her, begging for forgiveness while he tried to sneak in another hug.

“Get off, we’re getting ready for breakfast. I want to get to Boston by the end of the day this time.”

“You were cold in the night.” He reached for her hair and she slapped his hand away. “I was _trying_ to be helpful.”

“Oh really? Was that your only intention?” Sakura asked before yawning. She stretched her arms out in front of her and felt the bones in her back pop. 

With her hand gone from his, Sai started to stir beside her. His hair was only slightly disheveled, but when he ran his hands through it, scratching at his scalp, he left an agitated trail of uneven hair that stood up at all different angles. Sakura reached over to pat it all back down and he moved into her touch, closing his eyes and deflating a bit more. He almost looked like he was about to go back to sleep under her hand.

From across the beds Shisui pulled a pillow onto his lap and kneaded it over and over, hugging it to his chest as he waited for Sakura to drop her hand and return her attention to him. Once he caught her eye he straightened up and smiled.

“Breakfast?”

Sakura nodded. “Let’s take it to go through a drive through. There still too many hours of actual travel we need to make up and I don’t want to sit down at another Denny’s.” The memory was still fresh in her mind and would be fresh for a long time now.

Sakura hesitated before moving off the bed and reaching for her things. She pulled open the top of her backpack and dug around inside. There was the cool wood of the box she had retrieved from her home, still there, still sealed. She couldn’t risk it being found out or opened when she wasn’t there to manage it. With Sai and Shisui both watching she reached around for something instead and pulled out her toiletry bag.

“I’m going to freshen up. Sai, do you need the shower?” she asked.

Sai lumbered to the edge of the bed and stumbled onto the floor before moving towards the bathroom shower in a nonverbal answer. He came back out a minute later to be pelted with his clean clothes Sakura had already pulled for him. He went back into the shower’s small private room and a minute later the water turned on from on the other side of the door.

Sakura moved to the sink area that was just outside the shower room and brushed her teeth. Shisui’s looming presence was hard to ignore and harder to miss.

“So, what’s in the box?” he casually asked, not looking at her or her reflection even though she could feel his presence trained on her, sensing her reaction in other ways.

“Mine. None of your business.” Sakura cupped water to her mouth, gurgled, and then spat. “What did you talk to Sai about last night after I fell asleep?”

“As cunning as a cat,” Shisui chuckled knowing she knew more than she was willing to confess to. “I’ve nothing to hide and no lies live inside me. I’ve not said anything new that you haven’t already heard. You know I have feelings for you I wish were reciprocated, but I’m content for now just being close like this.”

Sakura hummed, rinsed her brush off and clipped it back into the traveling case once it was mostly dry. Shisui moved out of her way when she passed him to get to her bag and put her things away, but when she came back to grab the extra, unopened soap, he caught her by the wrist and tugged her close.

“Shisui.” Her tone was warning.

Shisui was a good head taller than Sakura already, but when he pulled her close he seemed to loom over her, not unlike how Itachi had. But more than just his height his countenance seemed to have changed, shifting into something less jovial. Sakura was a bit unbalanced by his new demeanor.

“If this had been Itachi you wouldn’t be as upset, would you?

Sakura took a moment to breath and school her voice into something that sounded less unbalanced. “Itachi has nothing to do with this, let me go.”

But like a magic spell, the moment she uttered his name, memories of Itachi came rushing back to provoke Sakura’s emotions with the details of their once proximity, his words the night of the party, the preexisting attraction that had started as nothing more than appreciating him as a piece of eye candy with her friend. Sakura had felt something for Itachi, explaining why he was able to distract her for so long before the incident of ivy and betrayal. If things have been different, if Shisui had been Itachi and their roles were reversed…

The door to Sai’s room opened and excess steam from the shower billowed out. Sakura pulled her hand free from Shisui’s grip and she moved around him to grab the free soap and pack it away. Sai blinked, hair still damp, and watched her move with hunched shoulders and down turned eyes.

“What did you do?” Sai asked in a quiet voice only Shisui would be able to hear.

Shisui chuckled and scratched the side of his nose. “Nothing Itachi wouldn’t do.”

“Itachi did many terrible things.”

“Yeah, but she _looked_ at him at least.”

Shisui pushed off the wall and gathered the bags Sakura couldn’t and followed her out, smiling widely and chattering like his usual self.

* * *

 

 

Konan’s forest had actually taken them into West Virginia, and the distance between her forest and Boston Massachusetts shouldn’t have taken more than one day, but navigating out of the forest in car and then dealing with traffic made their travel time a nightmare to consider.

They had just passed through the main section of Worcester in Massachusetts and were close enough to Boston that Sakura felt comfortable enough stopping for snacks out of a Walmart. She and Sai needed a restroom and Shisui was growing pesky and particular about the snacks he wanted. One last stop wouldn’t put them back too much.

“What’s her address?” Sakura asked, pulling out her phone and starting to load the map app.

Sai made a face. “She can’t be found that way. She lives in between words. One of my ink animals will be able to find the entrance to her home though. Leave it to me.”

“Great, I know exactly where I’m going then,” she sarcastically bit.

Sai blinked. “How could you, I just said I would show you the way.”

It only made her sigh again as she parked and exited the car. “Never mind, hon. I’ll rely on you and trust you to get us there.”

He seemed to cheer at her answer as it put a bounce in his step as they crossed the asphalt parking lot into the department store. “Of course, that’s all you need do.”

Following them in Shisui rolled his eyes from behind Sakura, but Sai caught it and sneered in response. The cheer melted off his expression as Sakura walked on ahead of them.

“Ok, you two can go to just get your snacks. I have to pick up some things in the clothing section. I’ll meet you over there when you’re done,” Sakura said, pointing to the check out counters at the front of the store.

Neither boy looked happy about being separated, but both complied without further protest.

For being such a large department store the traffic was light.She was thankful for the lack of traffic as well as the lack of interaction. Self checkouts were her best friend, she was on the run from the Good Neighbors, not the FBI, so video surveillance and technology helped them as much as a broken tooth helped a tiger chew meat. It would be more trouble that it was worth for them to try.

The old beings were infamous for their inability to keep upwith modern advancements without human assistance. Years ago it used to be the arts: music, poetry, painting…all things humans crafted and made while the fay could not. They were great tricksters and magnificent magicians, but they couldn’t create anything someone hadn’t already made. All they could do was copy.

Sakura could still hear the music from the speakers overhead, but that’s it. A far off strumming of a remastered version of some Jefferson Airplane song, the one about Alice in Wonderland. The song went on, but there were no footsteps, no beeps, no chatter, no other outside noise. Sakura stilled and turned in her aisle before trotting out into the hallway. Both were empty.

_Tell em a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call_

Sakura felt her hand heavy with the new weight of her Yew wand. She raised it to the level of her eyes, knowing it was too small to be eye catching.

_Go ask Alice…When you’re ten feet tall_

There was a brilliant breaking of lights and displays as the blue and red woven figure of a magic spun wolfhound crashed into her line of sight, tangled up in the hex of another figure. Two more wolfhounds surged forward, ignoring the hex that blinked on the ground like a purple sigil and went for Sakura.

The magic came easy, but hurt when it moved through her all the same. She pulled quarts out of the air and made a barrier for herself of the pink tinted mineral. It cracks, but held under the attack.

Sai and Shisui’s cries were far off but strong. Sakura cold see blank ink creatures in the air and hear Shisui move in between his opponents. They seemed to be dealing with bigger or larger enemies. Was that Ibis or another one of Danzo’s men she saw in between the overturned racks?

Sakura recognized the blue and red woven creatures in front of her. She had seen them in her vision from Yahiko. These things had been sent by Danzo to sniff them out. It had taken them long enough.

Sakura turned her wand onto the first wolfhound and saw it was still incapacitated with the purple hex. Sakura didn’t know how to spin hexes, and she didn’t know where that hex had come from, but it likely saved her life so she wasn’t going to complain about it.

She summoned more quartz mineral to grow from the floor and caught the leg of one of the dogs, but it chews it off and ran away, growing a new limb as it went. Sakura tried to impale the creatures as they came closer, but they were nearly as shifty as she was. There were three, and then there were two, one having been trapped by the hex. Sakura moved back and raised her wand again only to see the two moving hounds split like cells and divide into two new sets. Four wolfhounds circling her now she turned and counted again when they became eight.

“No fair,” she laughed, feeling a thrill of nervousness. She could smell their magical properties from where she stood. Like the Horned Women, these things were not to be taken lightly. “I thought you were supposed to be trackers.”

“They were.”

The last hexed dog stood up, blue and red threads glowing purple before returning to their natural colors. He growled and shook until his body doubled in size and produced spikes all down his back. His tail was tipped and lethal looking. Sakura knew that was not natural for trackers. Inhaling, Sakura noticed a new smell in the air and grimaced.

Sakura turned and saw a figure far outside the circling pack. She was blond with blue eyes and her hair braided back into twin tails that waved with each step like feathers or flags in the wind.

Another figure from the visions.

“You hijacked another’s spells.” 

The blond nodded. “They didn’t contract me for my looks.” With a sly smile the black magic started to feather across her face, solidifying and becoming a black one half cat mask. “Sit tight, rabbit.”

Sakura felt a thrill of fear as the dogs around her began to run and bleed into each other. She was trapped in the center as the largest began to stalk forward, lumbering and limber all at once. Sakura didn’t think it was possible.

Sakura reached deep and pulled her powers out and over her, transforming her pale hair even paler white, dressing her in soft white skirts and lace bands. The rabbit mask was in place and she was sidestepping her way through the sudden lunge. She turned in mid air and saw the blond was gone.

Fine.

That left Sakura plenty of extra attention to devote to killing her opponents.

She locked eyes with one and smiled through her nerves. “Come on nasty.” She twirled her sword and lunged.

She was a white rabbit, she was supposed to run. She was supposed to be the thing that fled and was chased, but she went against her nature. She choked down her fear, set her jaw, and made her nature a thing that fueled her.

Her heard hammered, but it didn’t beat fast. In fact it seemed slower than the tide. It seemed slower than thunder. She could travel the world between heartbeats. Time was her’s to wade though.

She could do this. She could do anything. She could do this.

The world slowed and she was wind with vengeance under her heels.

She was doing this.

Sakura pulled her Mistletoe sword free and raised it again to deal the finishing blow when she heard a sound that made her freeze. She turned when she heard Sai’s cry and saw blood all over the floor. Sai was down and Shisui was draped over the blond’s arm. She smiled coyly and pulled Shisui closer. “I’ve never lost a rabbit yet, but they’re no fun when they don’t even try torun.”

The distraction was all it took for Sakura’s fate to change. The creature under her swiped out quick with his tail and Sakura took it across her chest. She felt it deep and the front of her dress turned a deep red. Thin veins of honey blood mixed through, but Sakura was far too red to be healthy.

She took a step and felt the bite of venom in her bloodstream already. Sai was calling for her, screaming.

This had been too fast. They hadn’t stood a chance. They hadn’t been fighters, they had been runners, and they chose not to run. Why? Why had they been so foolish?

Sakura fell to her knees hard. She felt blood in her mouth and coughed, seeing it jump from her lips and feeling it run down the front of her mouth, over her chin, and down her throat.

“Who the hell are you?” Sakura heard herself ask.

The woman made her footsteps heard as she crossed the floor in heels that had been soundless only seconds ago in her fight. “Triple champion of the rabbit games and expert tracker, there’s nothing more you need to know.”

The girl stepped forward, through the blood on the ground that had been Sai’s. He was still conscious and not too badly hurt, but the blood was everywhere and so was the drug.

The blond woman stood in front of Sakura and waited, watching as Sakura tipped and tilted on her knees.

“Don’t worry. No one wants you dead. I’m just here to take you where you need to be.”

“And where’s that?” Sakura winced at the shredded sound of her own voice.

“Home.”

Home was a wonderful place, and when she thought of the word home she thought of Carnation Manor with Konohamaru and Sarutobi and Itachi, but then there was Sai too, and even Shisui. Home was back there, with those people who cared about her. It wasn’t the place she was raised, but the place she loved.

This woman wasn’t going to take her home, and Sakura knew this.

Roaring, Sakura pushed herself up with her sword and raised it high. She was weak and din’t have a lot of power in her arms, but she raised her sword high enough to fall with all the force needed for a death blow.

It would have been a beautiful thing to watch, but Sakura’s sword fell from her fingers when an arrow surged through the air and sank into her chest. Gold tipped, it sank deep into her flesh and held strong.

Sakura went limp, but tried to grab it. Her brain told her arms to reach for it, but her arms never moved.

She fell onto her back, hair fanning out around her head like a broken halo. People were talking. Commands were being given. Shisui was calling her name and Sai was too. Which one was screaming and which one was crying?

The woman’s black heels came into view and Sakura wished she had enough energy to lift her eyes. The next thing she knew, the world was black and she was no more.

* * *

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had given up on this and didn't plan to share any more of the story. It felt like a mistake and I regretted making it in the first place, or at least sharing it in such a way. This story is a bit more personal than the other fic pieces and I guess I cared more because of that. It wasn't super popular but it inspired such amazing fan art and lovely words from people in asks on tumblr, telling me how much they enjoyed it. I don't know when I'll add to this but, this was on of the last chapter in the first part of the second book. (There are two more I think.) But anyway, I never would have posted this if I hadn't heard from so many people. Thank you. Thank you so much.


	11. Chapter 11

It wasn’t like the other dreams. She could feel things she never could feel in natural dreams. The atmosphere was heavier, but not stifling. Sakura turned and saw the field of dried flowers around her. Mere yards away she saw the distressed patches and followed their pattern until she came upon the figure responsible.

Itachi knelt among a scattering of feathers and dead crow bodies. Some of the feathers had been burned away and were still charred and smoldering. Lazy curls of smoke drifted skywards but he remained motionless, crouched down on the ground.

“What happened?”

Sakura asked before she knew what she was doing. She knew this wasn’t a dream, even though it felt less than real. She was in Itachi’s mindescape. Ever sine he let her visit, she had always had a way to travel back to him most privet part of himself.

When he spoke Itachi’s voice was thinner than a ghost’s. “We killed them. It was necessary they said, but I don’t think they meant this.” His words seemed to rip out of his throat as he struggled to breath. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Madara wasn’t supposed to resist.”

“What did you honestly expect?” Sakura sighed, lacking any fear in that moment. She stood at the edge of the circle where Itachi knelt, hands limp at her sides. “You signed up for this.”

Itachi stilled and looked up, seeing her for the first time. “What are you doing here?” His eyes were glued to the golden arrow sticking out of her chest, a leftover from the real world. It didn’t harm her here.

She paused to look around. There was no reason or explanation for why she had slipped into Itachi’s mind. This place was like a sunken dip she naturally fell into when she wasn’t paying attention. It wasn’t something she chose. She didn’t understand it herself. 

“I don’t know.”

It was an honest answer, but when she looked back to Itachi he was gone and the world was tearing apart.

* * *

 

She awoke on a bed of straw somewhere far away.

The wound across her chest was still open and weeping, along with the hole left behind by the arrow. Sakura turned her head and felt the cold of the stone floor meet the skin of her face. Her mask was gone. The transformation was over, she was human again and her hurts were healing at human speed.

Was her gash long, was her wound deep? What about where the arrow hit her? Was there still an arrowhead in her chest, or had they removed that when they pulled the shaft away?

Sakura tried to life her fingers and prod the wound site. It squished and she sucked air in sharp over her teeth when new, red red red, blood came pouring out. The gold of her was gone and she was well aware how human she really was under the mask.

She hurt all over and she didn’t want to move. She was afraid of moving, but she couldn’t see Sai or Shisui anywhere near her. She turned her head to the other side and saw another wall of stone. It reminded her of the cheesy mediaeval dungeons from movies and wondered if that was where she was. She couldn't’ see much, but she saw enough to suspect she was trapped somewhere.

At least she wasn’t chained. That would have been _so_ much more fun.

Something inside her tickled and Sakura started to cough. It came up wet sounding and she tasted something tangy on the back of her teeth. Breathing wasn’t easy and she started to shiver. The room around her wasn’t warm and she was blood stained in the leftover rags of what had once been a perfectly good outfit.

Sakura closed her eyes and reached out with her magic for the feel of her own, subdued fay nature. She found it and fell into it, gasping as the mask grew over her face and a new life filled her wounded body. Her wounds still bled, but they started to close up at a faster rate, leaking gold alongside blood.

Sakura felt strong enough to roll over after a few minutes and used her new strength to pull herself up and take a new look around her. The cell was oddly clean aside from the bed of straw she had been left on, but also old feeling. There were iron bars on two opposite walls, and iron veins peaked out through the stones in the walls, exposing peak of the iron infrastructure. This cell had been made to hold fay.

“Sai, Shisui?” she called out, scooting closer to one of the bar walls.

She reached out and touched the iron only to flinch and pull her hand back. The iron didn’t sting her as much as it would a full fay, but it still hurt to come into contact with when she was in her White Rabbit form. It would also be harder to break with magic. Iron loved to eat up magic, making it a favorite metal to alchemists and wizards. 

That was fine. She could touch the bars later after her wounds healed. For now, she needed to worry about healing and gaining strength. She would be no help to anyone in the condition she was in.

Who had taken her? She remembered the woman, what she looked like and what she said, but Sakura was still full of questions. Why had she been taken here? Was she here for the Uchiha, or was this the work of the Fox Court? Was there a third party chasing her that she knew nothing about?

The woman had said she was taking Sakura home, but Sakura was sure she had never been in this cell before. It was such an odd thing to think about. Had she ever been in a cell like this before?

No, but there had been worse places to be once upon a blood, bloody time.

Sakura inhaled and tried to smell the difference that made fairy realm air sharper and fresher than anything she could have inhaled in the human realms. There was a tingle in the back of her head when she breathed deep and she sighed out the breath knowing that she was back in the lands of the fay, without a doubt.

“She’s wearing a mask now.”

Sakura looked up sharply and saw a figure made out of shadow and cloth, flickering beyond the bars. There was a black mask hovering over shadow and beneath the fabric of a cloaked hood that she couldn’t properly see. It was a created creature, something spun out of magic to work as a sentry or spy or simple servant.

“What am I doing here?” Sakura demanded, standing up, holding her still wounded side.

The figure turned his head to the side. “You’re worth plenty all on your own, but we were promised extra if we could deliver you in secrecy. I will need you to drop that mask unless you wish this next step to be extremely painful.”

It raised transparent hands made out of smoke and darkness that grew more solid towards the tips. The fingers were pointed in sharpened ends more claw than nails.

Sakura braced, falling back into a defensive stance and holding up her fists. “Not a chance.”

Black lightning hit the bars and traveled through the metal, all around her. Sakura was tensed and ready to be struck by the lightning, but jumped back when the only thing that was hit was the metal. The iron screamed under the impact and Sakura felt the air cut around her and grow denser. She held her hands up, ready to draw her sword or wand and counter, but the black light was in the metal and the metal was all around her. She turned and as soon as she moved a black arm of energy shot out for the back of her neck.

He hadn’t lied. It was painful, incredibly so. 

Sakura slipped and fell to one knee, fists still raised. “Who are you?” she screamed over the pain still crackling behind her eyes.

There was another jolt through her side from the bars to her right. “My master is simply the best at what she does. You need know nothing more than that.”

Anther twin strikes caught her in the back and front simultaneously and she felt the magic holding her together strain. She wasn’t a fighter, and rabbits weren’t built to take hits like other magical creatures of the fay courts. Sakura pulled her body close and braced, feeling like she would fall apart or spill out if she didn’t.

“Where are Sai and Shisui!” Sakura screamed, feeling tears leak over and under her rabbit mask.

More bolts ran through her. Sakura screamed, summoned her wand without ceremony and shot a bolt out at the figure beyond the bars. Her magic flared in angry fire, but hit the iron bars and was absorbed into nothing. It was the reason he attacked her though the bars.

“They were not part of the bounty, but they will be worth something. Resist and you will not see them again. Comply and there is a chance you will find them alive.”

Sakura looked up, hearing a new voice. Behind the shadow figure the blond woman stood, arms crossed over her chest, one blond braid over her shoulder while the other swung down behind her back. She frowned at Sakura before pulling out an acorn from her pocket.

“You,” Sakura hissed, feeling her nails curl into the hay below her in an effort to stay grounded. Everything hurt and she saw the world in hues of black and purple at this point. “I’ve never met you before. Why are you doing this?”

“You should know better that to ask such silly questions. I’m for hire, you’re a healthy bounty. What more need you know?”

“A bounty for who?” Sakura could barely see straight as smaller bolts assaulted her again.

“I’m still deciding that. I was originally contracted for The fox Court, but I’ve heard another party would be interested in your hide. He sent his own mediocre hunters out after you. I dealt with them easily enough, but he might have something that makes your life worth my while.Funny why he’d want you. I don’t see his reasoning. Anyway, you’ll know by tomorrow when I get the Magpie back from him.”

“Sai and Shisui?” Sakura gasped, having a hard time breathing.

“If you’re weak enough you’ll see them. How about it?” She turned to the shadow figure at her side. “Once more, I don’t want this one breaking like last time. There’s already one more body than recommended in the nut.” 

All the bars around her hummed and Sakura closed her eyes, bracing for it. The noise built itself up, raising in pitch one octave at a time until the sound snapped and Sakura felt it tear through her. She fell apart on the floor, seeing no wound through her body though she knew she had been struck with enough force to kill a lesser man. Only her stolen fay nature had kept her alive this long.

With a shudder, she let go of the magic and let the white dress and rabbit mask melt away in shattering glitter. She felt the weakness of her human body once more and shuddered. Her side was aching more than before.

Behind her the cell doors opened and the sound of heels on stone made Sakura want to tense, but her body was drained, worse than when she was injured.

“Finally. Between the three of them I thought I would be here all day,” the woman sighed, stopping right in front of Sakura. She leaned down and held the acorn over Sakura’s limp body. “Time to go,”

Sakura wanted to cry.

Behind the woman the figure stepped into the cell and a new shade of light fell over it’s mask. The details became clear for a split second before the acorn touched Sakura’s head and bound her to it’s magic, sucking her into the pocket dimension.

The mask was the same one Karin had been wearing in her vision.

* * *

Yugito Nii tossed the small nut into the air and caught it, holding it close to her chest. She slipped it into a pocket above her breast and pat it down so that it rested against the other two nuts that held similarly weakened prisoners. It had been a hassle to compact them into the acorns, but there was little magic that could break her spell if someone didn’t want to pay her for her bounty. She always tried to hide her high profile bounties away in the enchanted tree nuts before negotiations. If things went south, there were only a handful of people on the known planets that could undo her magic.

“Be gone,” Yugito Nii spoke to the shadow creature.

She waved her hand and it fell apart like a vapor. Only the empty mask clattered to the floor, lifeless and dull. Yugito Nii picked it up and slid it in between the other five in her pouch to use at a later time.

She wouldn’t need anyone or anything else for the next few hours when she expected to receive word from the black magician about the three captives. Mito only wanted the girl, but Danzo might be willing to buy all three. After his conquest it was odd that he might want more soldiers, but there was no denying that he had suddenly become someone important, someone expensive, someone with bounty worth having. She would not ignore his offers, but he would do well to respect her labors.

He was still only a wizard and wizards were human with human pride. She hoped his hubris would not be the same sort of undoing so many of his kind fell to in the end. There was no room for pride when dealing with the good neighbors.

As if summoned by her thoughts the blackbird drifted down and perched on the window’s ledge. It bent to peck at the parchment curled around it’s leg and then squawked for her to remove it. Yugito pulled the parchment free and read the precious few words, growing more and more irritated before reaching the end.

She crumbled the paper and the let it burn.

Behind her the bird hopped around and then flapped noisily. It raised a call, asking attention once more, and she knew it was because it wanted a reply to take back.

The gall of some humans.

And after she sent him the verification he asked for. She should have known that he wouldn’t be worth the business when he asked her to prove her capture of Sakura. A lock of pale pink hair was wasted on him.

“Have your answer then,” she breathed over the bird.

Yugito lifted both palms and a blue flame flickered in each. In the next second there was a roar as twin blasts burned the summon alive. It cried out before bursting into smoking feathers that drifted down between her ankles.

“It’s only business,” she whispered to the ashes.

Maybe the high queen of the Fox Court would be in the business to buy a couple of extra bodies. Sometimes they liked trophies that could still fight.

 

* * *

Sakura came awake like a switchblade, shooting into her consciousness with a mania to stand, to move, to run and escape. Chains around her wrist and neck made her choke and stumble. She came crashing back to the floor on a painful angle that made her human body bruise. She whimpered and touched at her side where blood, still wet, leaked from her side. The worst of it had healed before she gave up her mask, but it still was a superficial wound surrounded by blood and bruising.

She moved and the chains moved with her. She touched the one at her neck and recognized the feel of iron. She was impressed. If she really had been taken by the fay they would have had to find an alternative way to get the metal on her without touching it themselves. Probably a human slave or changeling.

“Awake?” a small voice asked from behind a fox mask.

Sakura looked up and hated herself for how close she came to pissing herself. A small girl in a fox mask stood next to the end of her chains, but behind her, behind her….

“Mito,” Sakura whispered.

_Hands in her body, pulling, ripping, mashing and tearing…_

The tears came to her eyes and her body started to shake all on its own. There was nothing she feared more and n fate she dread more.

“My champion has returned to my courts,” Mito cooed, stepping out from the shadows.

The girl stepped aside, hiking up her shoulders as the tall woman of too much red vibrance passed by. Mito was taller than any woman Sakura had ever met with hair nearly on fire for it’s vibrancy. It trailed to her ankles now and hid the immodesty of her barely there clothing. Lights danced around her head, a crown of drifting fires.

If Sakura could have she would have pissed herself when Mito stepped down the stone steps to the pit where Sakura had been kept. She was drowned in adrenaline and fumbled with hands that didn’t know how to work enough to push her up. She rolled back and scooted back across the stone floor and nearly stood, but her legs wouldn’t work. Her legs were traitors.

Mito laughed and it sounded like a dozen glittering bells.

Sakura reached inside her for the bell to banish her worst nightmare, but the iron burned and kept the magic trapped in her. She was nothing. She had nothing. She might as well have been a child again.

“No,” Sakura choked. “I’m no-I-I’m not. No, no, no, no-nonononon, NO!”

Sakura screamed when the girl pulled her chains taunt and forced her to skid closer across the stone floor to the towering woman. Mito looked wickedly delighted.

“My precious child, I’m so happy to see you again. I’ve been sick with the absence of my champion. My greatest achievement.”

The fay couldn’t lie, but they also could feel the things Mito claimed she felt. She sounded like a mother meeting her child again but that was the furthest thing from the truth. She was a monster with teeth all the way down her throat and a smile painted perfect for watching children bleed at her feet.

Sakura was sick all the way through as she remembered what Kin looked like torn in half, spine trailing out, Ami’s face split open, and all the other girls that never made it to the end of their trials. She remembered the way Mito laughed with her voice like bells and it was as if Sakura never left that hell.

“It’s not fair,” she gasped, clawing at her face and neck, sick with the mania of wanting to flee. “I won, I wo-I won for you and you said you were done with me. You never-you never wan-wanted me after that. I won, I made it out, I survived-I WON!”

Mito smiled like the noise never mattered. “Of course you did, champion. And I was done with you. But that was then and now is now. I have a new need for you. You will-”

Her words stopped when she saw the red smear on the stone and then the wound on Sakura’s stomach.

“You…you are hurt.” Mito’s smile fell off her face and she turned like the face of a fire to address the shadow clad girl with blond tails. “That is not what I asked for.”

“It was unavoidable. She is whole, otherwise,” the hunter explained.

“But that wasn’t what I asked for.”

Sakura watched the situation shift as Yugito ducked her head. The mask she wore hid only the top half of her face. “Many apologies. She was highly resilient to protect herself as well as her companions. I mentioned them earlier.”

Mito hummed and it was a noise of warning. “Show them to me now.”

Yugito fumbled with the nuts but cracked them on the floor and two bodies tumbled free. Sakura locked her voice away in her throat, refusing to react to the sight of Sai and Shisui limp on the stone floor across the pit steps.

Neither stirred.

“A wizard and a…oh, this one is an Uchiha. He must have been escaping that travesty going on in his court. He’s got the look of a, oh I can’t place it exactly. Let me see him.”

Mito bent and grabbed for Shisui’s face. She inhaled and her red hair burned a little brighter before she dropped the Uchiha back onto the steps. Mito cheered and clapped her hands.

“A black rabbit?! What a treat. Of course he would be running. But I can’t believe he’d get along so well with my perfect and beautiful white rabbit champion. Wizards are humans and great pets.” Mito turned back to Sakura and smiled bright. “My dear one, would you like this one as a pet once more?”

Nothing was worse than being stuck in the fox court but Sakura was sick with fear and she didn’t want to be alone against all her fears. She knew Mito was a wicked but fickle queen. She would buy both Sai and Shisui if Sakura showed the slightest bit of interest. They would each suffer in the fox court, but at least they would be together, at least Sakura wouldn’t have to suffer alone.

Sakura curled her lip and forced a glare onto her face. “You think I’m like you? Like I would want a pet to whimper and cower at my ankles. I’m not so sick.” Sakura spit and channeled all the fear she felt into her glare.

Mito laughed, amused by the defiance of her champion in chains. “Of course you would, in time. You’ll learn to love it.”

“I’d rather not have to suffer such a fate. Get them out of my sight.” Sakura shook her chains. “And get these things off me.”

“All in good time. I am eager to gaze upon my perfection once more, but before then…” Mito turned back to Yugito. “I don’t think I want to buy either of your toys. Keep them with you during your stay and you may yet find someone else in my courts who would want to waste their monies on your trash. I’ve all that I want.”

“You are quite wise, most radiant one.”

Mito waved over her shoulder. “Take the money my fox lads give you and return to you guest chambers. I have been depraved this sight long enough.”

Sakura shivered as Yugito summoned two shadows to drag Sai and Shisui out before a fox in boots, standing upright, handed her. Bag of glittering things. Yugito bowed once more before they all left. Sakura watched Sai slip out first followed by Shisui who looked like he might be stirring awake. She didn’t see his eyes before he too was taken away.

The chamber echoed with the sealing of the door and Sakura knew she was trapped. She would never be strong enough to take on Mito herself, even with all her tricks. She was only good for running.

“Unlock her chains,” Mito boomed to the child.

“Mi-mistress?”

Mito didn’t turn around to address the girl, but watched Sakura unblinking. “There is nowhere to run and she needs healing. Do as you’re told, little kit girl.”

Sakura went still as the child approached her with an iron key that fit into the metal around her neck. The metal clicked and then fell away. The ones around her wrist fell off and then the ones on her ankles.

Mito’s grin grew.

The mask came back into place and Sakura was able to stand. Adrenaline meant nothing in her new body. The red wound leaked a few drops of honey blood and then it was sealed up. Her icons were all there, ready to be used. She could summon the bell, shed her mask, and then-then-

Mito’s grin was wider than ever.

“Beautiful. My best work,” the queen breathed.

Sakura saw red through her ruby colored eyes as she screamed. The Mistletoe sword was already in hand as she swung her whole body into the strike, but Mito didn’t even flinch as one of the lights from her crown exploded into a scimitar of fire to block the blow. Sakura recovered and screamed as she attacked again and again, knowing she would tire before she ever saw a dent in Mito’s magical defenses.

The queen laughed and then charged, not faster, but moving with enough force that she made Sakura stagger. Mito caught Sakura’s wrist and held her up by it, pulling her off her bare feet. Sakura swung, reaching for her breast to draw a new weapon, but Mito’s fire burned her fingers and then that hand too was pulled up and way. Sakura dangled, limp and caught.

“How delightful. That spirit in a rabbit, I always knew you were something special. You were meant for something more than this lovely, unworthy mask of ours.”

“I don’t deserve anything you have to give me. I deserve to go back home, to be left alone. You said you were done with me. I won, I did as you asked….I-I,” her voice caught as she felt the tears under her mask trail down her face. “I won already. I won, let me go!”

“Not until I’ve shown you the extent of my gratitude, sweet child.”

"NO! Let me-!"

Mito pressed her lips together until they glittered and then pulled Sakura to her to kiss her pale neck. Sakura screamed in pain as she felt the icon brand her at the base of her collarbone, seeing deep and hot. The whole of the chamber echoed with her inhuman screams. There had been no warning and no honey wine to drink before the branding kiss, but Sakura knew none of that helped enough to matter. Every brand that became an icon hurt like the devil.

“Take these as a token of my affection. I appreciate your victory and the fame you brought to our court too much to be satisfied with something as trivial as a ticket home.”

Mito hummed in delight and lowered Sakura to the ground, where she staggered on rubber-like legs that couldn’t even hold her up anymore. Sakura fell to her side and convulsed atop the stone, whimpering as her tears came hot and thick from underneath the gold of her mask.

No, no, no, no, no....

This wasn't fair. She was the champion. She had gone through hell and survived it all. She deserved peace at the end of it all. She hadn't suffered so much just to come back to it. She didn't deserve it the first time and she sure as hell didn't deserve it the second time. It wasn't fair. She couldn't think of a worse fate. The hell of her nightmares was laughing at her now and it wasn't fair.

Mito bend down and brushed back Sakura’s curls, cooing at how lovely they were. Her eyes were soft with affection before she bent over Sakura once more and kissed the center of Sakura’s forehead.

This brand was not like the others.

The pain pushed her out of her body as she felt her limits reached. Her eyes were still blown wide and saw the world in too much clarity. She saw all the cruelty of each detail, including the way the child in the fox mask watched on with thick tears.

When Sakura thought of hell she saw Mit’s smiling face, heard her bell like laugh, and felt those hands of hers inside her chest. For years it had been the god of all her fears. She had promised herself that she would never be put in such a situation again, that it was impossible. In the night when nightmares felt too real, she swore something different to herself, that if she ever went back to that place she’d kill herself before Mito could put her fay hands into her changeling body again.

But Sakura couldn’t move her arms. Her body was somewhere else, beyond her control. Her traitor fingers wouldn’t even curl to make a blade once more for her own throat.

Mito backed up enough to twist her hair into a knot and then shed her dress as all the marks and runes of royalty colored her body in a new, glowing gold light. Her hands burned with a new sort of magical fire Sakura recognized too well.

Sakura wanted her sword, wanted to run it across her throat, wanted to fall asleep forever and never have to hear the laugh of her personal devil.

Mito whistled and a fox made out of fire came to take away her dress, promising to keep it free of blood somewhere else. The little fox girl trembled as she watched on, too scared to move or look away.

“I’ve not been satisfied with all my failures, but you’ve never let me down, Sakura,” Mito cooed.

No, no, no, no, no....

Sakura could only manage a single word with her petrified lips. “ _No_.” 

“I’ve also been dissatisfied with how my gifts have been lacking all these years. I will rectify that now.” Mito’s smile belonged to the devil as she knelt down over Sakura. Her hand was on fire until a knife as thin as a baby’s hair materialized out of it; a scalpel.

“But…I….won.” 

The tears kept rolling down and off the edges of her face. Sakura’s breath caught as the blade dug into her, burning and hot. She screamed, but Mito just laughed as she went to work, making something new out of another body.

* * *

Two parties later and neither Mito nor Sakura had been seen, but that wasn’t unusual. Time flowed a little different in each part of the court. It didn’t really matter to Yugito one way or the other. She had already received her payment and once she unloaded the wizard and the black rabbit it would be the end of her stay in the far off court.

Yugito exhaled, drinking from another glass flute something that bubbled and didn’t have a human word. She glanced across the table where the wizard boy sat in manacles. The Black Rabbit had to wear a brand, but Yugito was getting exhausted from having to reapply it every ten hours when he burned through it. He was a bit heartier than she had first assumed. She should have tried to sell him as a potential research material to the queen back when she had the audience.

Yugito looked up when she caught sight of the glittering mantle of the fox prince. She stood and bowed low before he could even reach her, straightening only when she heard him stop.

“I’ve heard of you. You had business with my mother,” Naruto the fox prince grumbled, looking bored. His eyes drifted to the two bodies in the booth. “Bringing more bodies for her to tear open? Why didn’t she take these from you?”

“My prince, your mother the high queen was tremendously pleased with a different delivery earlier and saw no need for further materials. I was granted permission to try and find a buyer for them elsewhere.”

“And that’s why you invited me here?” Naruto asked with almost a sneer.

A secondary figure came up behind him, nearly identical apart from the color. His mantle, like his hair, was pitch black, though both boys shared the same clear blue eyes. Second prince Menma glared openly at Yugito, prompting her to bow once more.

“Please, consider them fine soldiers you might have in your service. With your wise guidance, this human wizard could be your iron keeper, and the other…he is no mere court fay, but a black rabbit champion cast out.” Yugito gestured to each boy as she spoke of their merits.

“He looks like he wants to bite my head off. You think we want to waste our time breaking a brat like that?” Menma grunted, pointed to Shisui.

Yugito frowned, hating how weak the seal had already become. She should have replaced it early instead of waiting for it to run out. Shisui was struggling more than usual.

“They are breakable, I assure you.”

“What else did you bring to sell to my grandmother?” Naruto asked, ignoring both boys. “She’s not easily captivated by the things you hunters bring in. Tell me what captivated her.”

“You will have to ask your own grandmother for that information. I was bid not to speak of it. It is…her business now.”

Naruto’s eyes burned like blue fire as his features darkened. “I should kill you now for being here, bringing your dirty practice into my courts. You pervert my mother with your enabling of her mad fantasies.”

“Stay yourself, brother,” Menma grunted.

He caught Naruto’s elbow and then nodded to the two at the table. Naruto followed his gaze and saw what Yugito could not. Under the table Shisui was moving his hands in a code neither boy could catch fully. Only one word stood out.

“How much for the pair?” Menma asked. “I doubt you’ll include seals for either so don’t make me disgusted with you even more.”

Naruto growled at his brother. “You can’t be serious. Menma, she’s filth. Don’t-”

“What I do is my business, brother.” Madara held up a hand to silence his brother. “I do not answer to you in all things.”

“You are just like grand mother, a monster. You both repulse me.”

“Then be repulsed,” Menma grunted, pulling from his belt two glittering cards. When he turned them over a diamond the size of a baseball rested in the center. “Would this suffice the pair of them.”

Yugito swallowed and glanced sideways at both boys. They might have been worth more, but she wasn’t in the position to haggle for their proper price. She knew she wasn’t welcome and there were other bounties out in the world waiting for her. It would serve her better to move on as soon as possible.

“I would be honored to make the exchange. Consider them yours.”

She took the money and transferred the last of her charms to the darker brother before excusing herself. She found a shadow and was long gone from the court of foxes before either of them could hope to call out or regret their decision.

“Why would you do something like that?” Naruto grumbled, less heated than before. He crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels as Menma approached the black rabbit and pulled at the seal that kept him immobile. The other one watched on, too tense to be calm.

“Before I pull this off, I need you to know what I want from you. Earlier you wrote with your hands the symbol for the white rabbit. Only those who have played the games or watched them so well would know that hand sign. What I want to know, is why you think me knowing or seeing that sign would matter.”

Menma pulled the seal back and it was like ice cracking as the magic fell off Shisui. He blinked and then looked up at the fay prince looming over him. Glaring, Shisui straightened in his seat and hissed.

“Because she’s the one your crazy grandmother took. That hunter captured us along with Sakura, but the only one the queen kept was her!” Shisui stood in his seat, donning his mask. “Sakura said you were her friends. Was she mistaken, or do you care that your queen is killing her right now?”

Naruto’s eyes bled red as for the first time in a long time he remembered a feeling he only ever felt when it came to his white rabbit; he was _desperate_ for her.

Menma turned to his brother and his expression was just as stormy. “Where is she?”

* * *

If you go chasing rabbits, you're sure to fall...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go before the conclusion of this 'book.'  
>  I have in mind a trilogy of three different novel sized books. The first part is White Rabbit, the second is Red Fox, and the last....well, you'll see.


End file.
